I’ve been back to the city since September 11, 2001. A few times in fact. It hurts deep inside every time I go back. It’s getting better though. The first time I went back was the day before they pulled down the last big piece of wall. The PATH wasn’t running yet. They were still cleaning up the mess. The next time I went back, the hole had been cleaned out, the PATH was running again, and we rode it from Newark, NJ to its first stop in NYC. The stop used to be called World Trade Center. It still is.
It was incredible. The train comes up out of the hole that used to be the basement of the WTC. You really don’t get a sense of the size of it until you step outside and see one of those trains running down there. That gives you some perspective on how monstrous the buildings were and the hole actually is.
I honestly don’t care what the reason was for the attacks of 9/11. There is no justification for such an atrocity. People say we don’t understand the attackers. This is true. Is there ever a reason to even try to understand the motives of madmen, other than to use those motives to catch the madmen? What’s to understand about a people that want to stay in the Stone Age and bring the rest of the world back there with them?
According to the top of my blog, it happened 2,556 days ago. It seems that these days there are many in our country and abroad who forget that we were attacked on September 11, 2001. They like to say that our current president has done nothing for our country. I say, we haven’t been attacked in two thousand five hundred and fifty-six days. So, to say he’s done nothing isn’t really fair, is it? He’s kept us safe at least.
Article comments
1 - Pablo
9/11 was an inside job
2 - The Other Chad
Good article. I agree - no justification for the attacks whatsoever, despite how many people have tried to spin it. The only thing I would say is that I would think twice before "getting over" the Pentagon as well - yes, it's a military target. But we weren't at war on 9/11/01, so striking any target, unprovoked, during peacetime is still abhorrent.
And I agree with your defense of W. at the end of the article - again no matter how many people try to spin it.
3 - bliffle
9/11 might have been prevented if Condy Rice wasn't asleep at the switch on 8/11. What could she have been doing that was more important than dealing with an alarming Intelligence Report? She should have at least read the dozen or so reports that said that terrorists might highjack airliners and crash them into high-visibility targets.
She should have been fired for goldbricking. GWB should have been fired for featherbedding the administration with cronies.
What the hell are these people doing all day when terrorists are crashing planes, thieves are stealing billions from financial institutions, hurricanes destroying major cities? They should all have been fired for malingering, for taking pay under false pretenses.
Ah well.
4 - Andy Marsh
I just read the speech that John McCain made in Shanksville, PA yesterday, along with the email Barry sent...
You can read them here and make your own determination as to which one touched you more. I know which one got to me and which one didn't.