I'm sure its all been said before:
But....
The Bush administration rushed the country into 2 wars, radically altered the right to privacy, undermined endless hard won freedoms, circumvented the judicial system, created a huge draconian government agency we'll never be rid of and (mis) spent 3/4 of a trillion dollars in various ways....
one of the many justifications is the 3-4000 deaths...
and not to belittle the tragedy of it all, lets be realistic and have a sense of perspective:
while those 3500+ lives where wiped out in a dramatic and highly visible way, seeking JUSTICE and punishing the GUILTY were never in the discussion - 2 countries with a cumulative population of (roughly) 62 million were attacked for the (alleged) acts of 20 guys mainly from Saudi Arabia,
on the day those 3500+ people died in and around the twin towers:
6000 other people died in the US from all the usual causes
and more critically, 12000 babies born that day in the US, and every other day
and yet many people in the hysteria of the moment thought it wise to undo 200 years of legal and legislative practice and throw out everything! truly insane!
The cowardly pigs who decided to back all these changes are the real enemy of the United States. This country has weathered much greater challenges throughout its history than 9/11 without all the hysteria.
(CIA Fact book Numbers)
Afghanistan , 33,609,937 (July 2009 est.)
Iraq , 28,945,657 (July 2009 est.)
sum 62,555,594 people
While Iraq has been shown to have had nothing to do with anything relating to 9/11 somewhere between 95,000 and 1.03 million violent deaths have taken place there since the war was (illegally) declared.
While Saddam may have been an SOB of the first water, he did run a mainly secular government and managed to keep the lid on a factionalized and turbulent country - the biggest losers in our noble effort has been Iraqi women. The ministry of education under Saddam provided education, women were out in the open able to get jobs and advance in the workplace, Iraq was a very progressive Islamic country and had substantial opportunity for women - today Iraqi women are much more in danger than at any time during Saddam's reign.
This is progress?
Afghans, some of the poorest people on earth, exploited by the CIA created mujaheddin to fight the Russians in a war engineered in Washington were put at risk yet again for a feel-good spasm of righteous rage and fear, while Osama was supposedly a high priority target the number of troops deployed to Afghanistan was less than the number of cops in New York City (about 10,000)... but the number of troops dumped into Iraq was 130,000. Who still believes ANYTHING the Bush administration said about the intents and purposes of the war?
But nothing, not even the complete destruction of Washington or New York would have justified the course we've taken both domestically or internationally, because our Governments stated intents and its actions still do not match, dragging Pakistan (172 million people) and Iran (66 million) into the fray will insure that military conscription will become mandatory - just to keep replacements rolling in..
this from a blog: You'll likely have to scroll down or search
The games afoot, and has been for 100 years.