4. The Events

Of course people were shocked, dumbstruck, horrified and angry. The U.S. does  not get hit. The U.S. hits other people. So what do we do now?  After the shock wore off it looked like we could either try to calm down those crazies who had the nerve to attack us, find out what they were so angry about. Then maybe see what we might do so they would not want to do this sort of thing again. Some people asked this question: why do they hate us? Then suddenly no one was asking questions. They wanted revenge. At first this seemed difficult. The perpetrators had  already killed themselves in their own crashes. So where to look next? Anybody out there we could hit?  Maybe Afghanistan? There were some obvious advantages. Afghanistan was among the poorest countries on Earth, they were cold, hungry and pitiful. They were also well bombed out already, and  the people had endured some kind of war for the last 20 years. The idea of the world’s all time mightiest war machine unleashing its fury on such a country appeared to many too monstrous to imagine, and we were horrified to see the idea become so quickly popular. The U.S. was certainly no stranger to Afghanistan, having first lured the Soviets into an invasion, then recruiting Osama bin Laden and assorted Islamic fundamentalists to fight them. So Osama had dutifully recruited Islamic Jihadists from far and wide, and had started al Qaeda, now become a world famous network of terrorists. Both Osama and al-Qaeda were often accused of having been responsible for the events of 9/11. It was further believed that he was hiding out somewhere in Afghanistan. So the president went before congress and asked for permission to use whatever means he thought appropriate to hit any one he wanted to. One voice was raised in dissent. One actual human being, congresswoman Barbara Lee stood up and said “No” She said “Let us not become the evil we deplore”. Very reasonable, certainly, but very few people were using a whole lot of reason in those days..Nevertheless those words have been echoing off the walls of Congress and the White House and the Pentagon, as we rushed madly to become “the evil we deplore” and much worse, all over Afghanistan and then Iraq and many other places.
 
Anyway, less than a month after the passenger plane attack, the U.S.  actually did indeed start raining bombs on Afghanistan. Since there were no anti- aircraft guns to oppose them, and no fighter planes, or any anti-aircraft of any kind, the bombing of Afghanistan was accomplished without any U.S.casualties. Needless to say many Afghans were killed, all civilians, all innocent, none Osama. It seemed to me like about as awful as anything any country ever did, really. I was kind of lonely back then because it seemed like the whole world thought this was entirely right and proper. Accepting the U.S. people’s self perception.  Even signing on  to join up. Talk about plague.

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