9-11

What were you doing that day?

I remember being at work, and listening in disbelief about the attacks. I did not view any scenes about the towers, as I figured I needed to stay at work, since we were at war. I thought that was what the terrorists wanted, to stop us cold.

I went to class that night, and learned through the radio that gas prices had shot up, and some stations didn't have gas. I saw the lines, and decided to wait until after class.

The instructor tried to teach class, but gave up after a few minutes. He said, "Ok, what do you want to talk about?" He knew no one's mind was on class that night. We spent the rest of class time talking about it.

After school was over that night, I stopped to get gas. I had to wait with several other people, and I'll never forget the look on their faces. You didn't have to say anything. Everyone knew, and everyone had the same look of anger and determination on their face. Anger from the attacks, and determination to find whoever did this. It was like you could read what they were thinking. We all had the same thoughts that day.

When I got home, I watched the towers fall for the first time that day, and wept.

We were all united then, in the hope that we could bring these killers to justice.

What has happened?

Our nation has become divided over the war, and the debate will continue until it is completed. Bush has managed to split the country over this issue, unlike on 9-11, when we were united. Bush's prosecution of the Iraq war (needed or not) is a key factor in this. His calling anyone that disagrees with him a "terrorist" is pathetic. No wonder we're divided.

Mr. Bush made the right move, initially, in going after the Taliban. Unfortunately, he didn't get the main one. Bin Laden was cornered, and he got away.

Bush then makes a wrong turn, and deceives the public into thinking Saddam was linked to them. Five years later, we now have the proof that he lied.

Now, mind you, Saddam had to go. He had killed millions of his people. Problem is, we went after the wrong target, at the wrong time, in the wrong way.

I still believe that since we are in Iraq, for better or worse, we can't leave a vacuum. Problem is, the way the war has been run has been a shambles. We need a new direction, and a new way to get control before we leave. When we do, we can just leave the tanks and weapons for the Iraqi army to use. Dumb move disbanding their army, which could have been used with our own army to keep the peace.

Now we have Iran, which has always been the bigger threat, pulling the strings in Iraq, and creating a terrorist breeding ground. Bush opened Pandora's box when he went into Iraq, and only brought about 130,000 troops to control a country this size. Pretty easy for terrorists to hide when their is no army about, and the locals protect them.

As for Afghanistan, Bin Laden is still loose, and now the Taliban is back. Once again, a failed series of policies in Washington allows corruption to gain hold in the new Afghan government. People over there are getting disillusioned with the corruption, and turning back to the Taliban in some areas. We don't need these people getting a foothold again.

Bush made a huge mistake in not getting rid of Bin Laden first by using every tool we had at our disposal. Now he looks like a hero to some of them.

All Bush could think about was finishing the job his daddy didn't, and going after oil. Looks like it was much harder than he thought.

Now, here we sit, five years later, wondering if another attack will occur. We should have been done with this by now. We found Yamamoto in about a year and a half, and killed him. Why can we not find this clown?

Maybe Bush doesn't want to find him. That would end his "war on terror". Only problem now is that because we didn't get him at first, he's got an even bigger following now, almost mistique status to some.

This is no way to treat the families of the victims. It is as if a person knows who a murderer is, and keeps getting taunted by them, because they haven't been caught. There is no closure for them, because the murderers have not been brought to justice.

Maybe Bush is just using this as a political tool, and knows where he is, just so he can capture him by election time, and say, "Look what we've done!". Yeah, and it took how long to do it?

Don't buy the hype, folks. The Repubs are going to try every scare tactic in the book to get you to vote for them. If there is no attack, it's "See, we kept you safe". If there was one, it would be "We told you it wasn't safe". Either way, they'll play it to the hilt.

The only way to get the current administration to make the changes in policy that are needed is to vote in a new Democratic congress. Bush's hands would be tied, and he would have to make changes in the "war on terror". The first change should be to find Bin Laden and his deputies, and bring them to public trial in the U.S. The next should be how to get real stability in Iraq, so we can finally bring the boys home.

On a day such as this, let us all pray that we can finally get our country back on the right track, and earn the respect of the world again. Let us pray that with God's help, we will never have to see another 9-11 on our shores.