I can't believe that some people had the audacity to have a birthday today. Celebrating on the -1th anniversary of "9/11 II: Holy War". Sickening.
It's very hard to believe 9 years have passed since that first 9/11 though (well the first one on which some buildings fell down). At the time I thought it was unlikely we'd get 9 more years. But the fuse that was lit that day was perhaps a slow burning one. I hope I have lived through the most historic day of my life, but have a feeling that I might not have.
May you live in interesting times.
I watched a 9/11 documentary this afternoon. It seemed the fitting thing to do. And also slightly sick and voyeuristic. But it's that double whammy that makes tragedy so appealing. It's hard to watch the events of that day being played out again without hoping this time that someone will do something to stop it. The man who checked in Mohamed Atta to the airport that day said that he felt he had never seen anyone that looked more like a terrorist and that he was projecting evil, but then chastised himself for being judgemental and didn't say anything. What if he'd said something?
It seems quite a few of the terrorists were searched thoroughly, but still were let on to the planes. But it's easy to think in hindsight that someone should have asked why they had knives with them. But this was before 9/11 (just before) and you were allowed to take knives on planes then. What could you do with a knife? Oh yeah...
Some people, like Andrew Collings, are suspicious of the events of 9/11 and think that they were staged somehow by the government in order to justify a war or something. But why? The Americans had had the chance to take Iraq during the first Gulf War and had decided against it. Had they changed their mind in ten years? Maybe.
But if you search the internet you will find lots of videos of people claiming conspiracy theories - some think there were controlled explosions inside the towers. But why? Surely they didn't have to fall down. Once the planes had hit them, that was enough wasn't it? And others think the Pentagon wasn't hit by a plane, but a missile. Ignoring the people who saw the plane, who are all lying. And the fact that a plane disappeared at the same time in the same location. And why would anyone risk pretending that a plane had hit a building in broad daylight when you could just fly a plane into the building.
I am all for conspiracy theories and not believing everything governments tell you, but my problem with 9/11 conspiracy theories is the way they ignore things witnessed by millions and don't really have any good reason as to why anyone would bother. The number of people who would have had to have been involved - all willing to see an attack on their own country and people and never say anything about it. Hmmmm. Chinny reck-on. It's just hard to believe that the people in control of our lives aren't really all that in control, or that is could be so easy to pull off something so massive as 9/11. But it really is that easy.
Why didn't anyone get seriously suspicious of men learning to fly planes, who were not interested in learning how to land them? How thick were these terrorists? You'd think that would have been enough to get the authorities involved. But like that man at the check in, the human reaction is to assume that you're being judgemental or paranoid and really, could anyone have predicted what was on these people's minds. Not really. Because you'd think that someone else, somewhere along the line would stop it. But no one did. Not until the news came through to the 4th flight about what was happening and then people acted.
Anyway at least no one burned any Korans today (in the public eye at least) and at least the US President is standing up for the freedom of worship that his country supposedly believe in. And at least the 9th anniversary wasn't the time that was chosen for the next big atrocity. But if any terrorists are reading this - don't do bad things - but if you're going to anyway, can you do them on the 11th September so we can get all these memorials and retrospectives out of the way all at once. At least show a little bit of consideration.
