Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11... Never Forget...



I told myself that I wasn't going to say anything in regards to 9/11.  But a ton of Facebook posts inspired this, in addition to all of the tributes at the beginnings of the football games I saw.  There were quite a few statuses that said "We will remember", and "Never Forget."  Well, here are a few things that I think that we should NEVER FORGET.

NEVER FORGET that the only good thing that Bush did in the wake of 9/11 was not panic when he was notified.  Jokes about his intelligence aside, I can't fault him on his reaction while he was in a room filled with children.

NEVER FORGET how Rudy Guiliani exploited 9/11 all the way to the Republican National Convention, where he sneered and mocked things such as being a "community organizer."

NEVER FORGET the worldwide goodwill that the Bush Administration destroyed with his cowboy diplomacy by going into Iraq.

NEVER FORGET how the Republican Party used 9/11 to make a damnably offensive "Tribute To 9/11" video during the Republican National Convention, and how it was used to scare people into continuing the Bush Administration through John McCain and Sarah Palin.  I talked specifically about this horrid piece of terror propaganda here.

NEVER FORGET that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the downed Flight 93 were not the first time that terrorists launched an attack on American soil.

NEVER FORGET how the Bush Administration used the fear from 9/11 as an end-run around the U.S. Constitution, in order to invade Iraq.

NEVER FORGET that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.

NEVER FORGET that Donald Rumsfeld was the Secretary of Defense during 9/11, and his response to the soldiers being sent to Iraq with substandard equipment was:  "As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army that you might want or wish to have at a later time."

NEVER FORGET how the media (including the so-called "liberal mainstream media") sat on their thumbs when the Bush Administration was laying out their case for war in Iraq.

NEVER FORGET that former Bush Administration Press Secretary Scott McClellan basically dared the press corps to call him and the administration out on the criminally deceitful run-up to the war.

NEVER FORGET that Osama bin Laden was a Bush Administration afterthought until the tail end of the Bush Administration.

NEVER FORGET that Osama bin Laden was taken out during the Obama Administration.

NEVER FORGET "Mission Accomplished."

(I'm mentioning these three because there is a campaign out there to almost demand that the Bush Administration gets more credit for taking out bin Laden, and that the Bush Administration is not credited enough with keeping America safe)

NEVER FORGET that all of the intel that was used to hunt down and eventually kill bin Laden was gathered through means other than torture.

NEVER FORGET that the same people who used 9/11 as terror pornography are the same people who blocked health care for the First Responders for almost 10 years.

NEVER FORGET THAT IT TOOK ALMOST TEN YEARS FOR THE FIRST RESPONDERS TO GET THE HEALTH CARE THAT THEY DESERVED FOR THEIR HEROIC ACTS, AND EVEN NOW, IT'S FILLED WITH RIDICULOUS LOOPHOLES.  Ahem.  Sorry for shouting.

NEVER FORGET that 9/11 doesn't "belong" to anyone.

NEVER FORGET that the best way to honor those who have fallen is not through jingoistic wave-flagging, pseudo-patriotic rants about terrorists and Muslims, or sacrificing our freedoms for the sake of "security."