A few thoughts about 9/11 and its aftermath

The vice president gave a wonderful speech today about flight 93 on 9/11. Those people on that doomed flight rose up against the aggressors and brought the plane down in Pennsylvania before it could reach the capitol in D.C. I heard and watched and had a lump in my throat, until he pivoted to the war on terror.

There is an old saying that goes like this, “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” It has also been tagged as those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Back in World War Two, the Germans took over France, Belgium, Norway and other countries early in the war. Those oppressed continued fighting with guerilla tactics all through the war until the Germans were pushed back after the allies invaded.

In 1948 on the day Israel was recognized as an independent state the first Israeli Arab war started. Israel was formed on Arab lands. One could contend that today 69 years later there is still a war going on there.

Why did this happen? Why does it continue? I believe the answer is simple. The Germans were occupying other people’s lands. The Israelis are occupying Arab lands. The only solution is to remove the occupiers. It ended in France, Belgium and Norway when the Germans were forced out. It will never end in Israeli occupied Palestine.

Since 9/11 the U.S. has been fighting in Afghanistan. Since 2003 we have fought in Iraq. As long as we are there, there will be fighting. We are on other people’s land and that is it. We defend our occupation by saying it protects the U.S. mainland, but it is becoming more obvious that those from the lands we are occupying are recruiting more terrorists to attack guerrilla-style here in our country. Some are foreign, some are home grown. The fight may or may not end when we leave Afghanistan and Iraq, but it will never end as long as we are there.

We fought hard for over 10 years in Vietnam and lost 58,000 lives there. End result, we left and it was back to what it was before we started sending in troops in less than 6 months. Now we have trade with Vietnam (I am writing this post on a table made in Vietnam). Veterans are going back there with families.

The Vietnamese fought against the Japanese during their occupation starting in 1939. The French took over Vietnam after the war (called it French IndoChina) and the Vietnamese fought them until 1954 when the French left. Guess when the first U.S. troops went into Vietnam, 1955. Guess what the Viet Minh, Vietnamese did, fought until the U.S. left in 1975.

Before you discount this, think for a moment, what if the Chinese army invaded the west coast or the Russian army invaded the east coast, would we ever stop fighting them until they left? I think not.