Sixteen Years On

Which means that there are kids getting their drivers' licenses this month who were born in September of 2001.

Here are a couple of retrospective posts that I wrote years ago. Also one I wrote from a Jewish perspective. And what we, as a country, have lost.

To steal from the last link:

In Year Ten Sixteen of the [Afghan] war, the best that the commanders can say at the Five O'Clock Follies is that "tangible progress" has been made. Many more American fighting men and women will be killed and maimed. At least another trillion dollars will be spent. There is no end in sight for this war.

Sixteen years on. The Middle East remains a chaotic mess due to the aftermath of the Iraq War, a completely unnecessary endeavor. As I wrote in some of the posts linked above, thanks to the ignoring of the situation in Afghanistan for seven years, any chance of securing that country was squandered.

At home, we surrendered rights and liberties without much debate because we took a sucker punch. There has been no serious attempt to repeal or roll back the Bush Police State Patriot Act. The Republicans have been foaming to repeal health insurance because health insurance is tyranny. But allowing the Feds to search though your bank records without a warrant isn't tyranny, I guess. Neither are "sneak-and-peak" searches, nope, no tyranny there. The United States became a nation that resorted to torturing people. A significant percentage of Trump's base is pro-torture. Nobody has ever been held accountable for ordering people to be tortured. The doctors and psychologists who helped oversee torture and, in a couple of cases, designed torture regimes, remain unpunished and in practice to this day. Americans are the "good little Germans" of the 21st Century.

When it comes to civil liberties and freedoms, 9-11 was a defeat for Americans. Between massive deficit spending on the military (always a favorite of the GOP when they have the checkbook) and instability in the Middle East that has its roots in what the United States did post 9-11, it can be fairly argued that al Qaeda accomplished most of its goals for the attacks.

Even though he now rests in a watery grave in the Indian Ocean, the true victor of 9-11 was Osama bin Ladin.

UPDATE: From the comments section: