When the world shook that September 11, the fallout was grief and sorrow for the thousands of innocents who died. "Why?" the public asked and "What should we do?"

The President told us that the attack was masterminded by Osama Bin Laden, a vicious attack motivated by jealousy of our freedoms and prosperity and fuelled by the hatred of religious fanaticism. People wanted answers and people wanted revenge. In a knee jerk reaction Bush II and Co. bombed and invaded Afghanistan, in order, they told us, to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice, "dead or alive." Then riding a wave of media-induced public hysteria, Bush and Co. invaded Iraq under the pretext that the U.S. was under imminent threat of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack. Now, as the smoke from two wars clears, a different picture emerges.

Afghanistan was heavily bombed and then invaded but in this case beloved democracy wasn't restored but the support of an equally villainous group of war lords. The question on everybody's minds, "What happened to Osama bin Laden?" Bush Jr. did a complete 180 degree turn from his "dead or alive" campaign to "not knowing or caring about his whereabouts." The war over, the public lost interest and forgot. Yet the military presence remained, installed by the same group of Republicans (Rumsfeld and Co.) who had so far been unsuccessful in achieving their dream of building an oil pipeline to central Asia. Afghanis starved through the harsh winter. The U.S. blocked aid and violent tribal groups came to power. And the U.S. public forgot, forgot to help those poor souls who had suffered under the harsh Taliban regime, forgot to feel some responsibility for the U.S. government training, arming and allowing this group to come to power. Forgot that the media viciously incited a hate campaign against Afghanistan to gain public support for the war by showing archived footage of Afghanis dancing in the street and burning U.S. flags, supposedly in celebration of the Twin Towers attack.

Modern memory is short and the focus turned to the next war. What later turned out to be lies, spins, media manipulation and blatant forgery to justify a war. The focus of the media was not on those that died but on an unfortunate young female soldier who was captured, her Hollywood style rescue ended up being just that, choreographed and directed by the director of Black Hawk Down; rescued from a renegade pack of nurses and doctors. But it made us feel like something good had been done. We never again mentioned that under international law this was an utterly illegal invasion of a sovereign country and was in defiance of the will of the United Nations. More than a couple of hundred American soldiers died, we don't know how many were maimed. The deaths and injuries are still happening every day. "U.S. marines are awesome," our draft-dodging Prez boasted to a room full of mutilated young men, "just ask the other side."

We forgot to ask about the other side, Iraq Body Count has the minimum number of civilian casualties (reported) at around 7000. On top of that, we can be certain that tens of thousands of young Iraqi men are now being mourned for by their children, wives, siblings and parents. We forgot that the monster who forced them to go to war is the monster many of those Republicans in power now aided to power from the beginning by financing and arming, right up to the point he overstepped the mark and invaded Kuwait, a country in the words of Bush I, "vital to U.S. interests" (oil). Rumsfeld himself admitted this is not his first trip to Iraq, the last one was holding court with Saddam at the time he was committing his much heralded atrocities. We also forgot to notice how many civilians died or lost limbs when we shelled places like Nasiriyah or cut off the water supply to a million citizens in the city of Basra (a war crime under Geneva Conventions.) How many could have lived if we had allowed the Red Cross proper access or protected their camps from those looting and rioting in the name of "the freedom to make mistakes"? We never bothered to question more than a decade of cruel sanctions staunchly enforced by the U.S. which by conservative estimates killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. How could we punish those who had no choice but to suffer under the rule of the cruel dictator the U.S. government chose for them? How could so many starve in a country with the second richest oil reserves in the world? So many questions not just unanswered but not even asked.

Even the most blindly "patriotic" (i.e. don't ask questions, just accept our leaders' actions as right and just) have doubts. The media blatantly lied to and manipulated us. According to polls, the amount of Americans who believed Saddam Hussein planned 9-11 rose from 3% to more than 50% in the three month build up for the war. Strange when the vast majority of hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, a country of extremely important economic (unproblematic oil) and strategic (military base) ties so invasion was never an option there, neither were any questions.

Those families of the Twin Towers attack were told by the Government that we couldn't look too deeply into 9-11 because the focus and resources were being used on the current war. Perhaps in the hope that with time it will all blow over. But if we really want to know, understand and learn how to prevent another 9-11 we must look into this disaster as deeply as we can.

After the huge con involving Iraq's WMD capabilities was finally acknowledged by Wolfowitz, his subsequent boasts give us some idea about motivation for the 9-11 attacks. It also tells us that Bush & Co always planned this war regardless of international law or public opinion; it was simply a matter of manipulating us. The con, or as he put it, the "focus" on (this lie about) WMD was necessary to get everybody to agree on a war but, he happily told us, there were also other important reasons. After "liberating" a sovereign country, it would now serve as a U.S. military base and the U.S. could pull out of Saudi Arabia. "This is going to open the door to a more peaceful Middle East," he gloated, shortly before terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco killed 75 people. The argument behind his strange reasoning can be understood more clearly by reading the translated transcripts of the famous Osama bin Laden tape. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi like most of the attackers calls for the withdrawal of American forces from Mecca (Saudi area) and an independent Palestinian state. This gives us the motivation for the 9-11 attack from both the attacker and those in the White House but comes far too late. The public anger from 9-11 was channeled through lies and manipulation into backing the unjust invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Why do they hate us?" Dim Son whines. Perhaps this question should be interpreted as "Why do they hate U.S. policy?" Because like it or not, the U.S. has a long history of supporting monsters the world over. Marcos, Pinochet, Duvalier, Ceausescu, Mobutu, Suharto, what do they all these dictators have in common? That the U.S., in the name of "freedom"- supported, armed, trained and financed these practicers of mass murder right up to the time they were overthrown (or in the case of Pinochet, stepped down). Doesn't sit well, does it? If you don't believe me, put the names in a search engine and do some reading on what went on during their regimes. Then read the declassified files about U.S. involvement. It's fact. More recently:
- The current wave of shocking violence between Israel and Palestine can be attributed to Bush Jr. giving the green light for Israeli expansionism in mid March, in which, during one of his rare speeches he stated that as the peace process advances, Israel should terminate new settlement programs. This means that as long as there is no peace (easily accomplished) Israel can continue invade and control Palestine. Not exactly a clear or fair "road map."
- Last October, the US (and Israel) voted against a reaffirmation of a Geneva Convention banning biological weapons. Makes you wonder where they're really hiding, doesn't it?
- The U.S. wants to be the only country exempt from being held accountable for war crimes- those the US was accused of committing in Nicaragua were vetoed by the US's own vote. Under its own "special case" rule, the US insists that being the bastion of democracy, any cases involving American committal of war crimes overseas must be tried within the US justice system. Those Europeans who wanted to take the US to the World Court for murderous bombings of civilians in Afghanistan had to do so in this way and, not surprisingly, we haven't heard anything about it since.
-The U.S. recently violated the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty by planning the "mini-nuke" program.
-Last year, but not making big headlines was the U.S.'s secret support of a military coup against a popular (democratically elected) socialist president in oil-rich Venezuela.
Replacing a democratically elected leader with a military dictatorship? Unusual behaviour from the country at the helm of the world, bellowing to those below that they should follow our example of promoting justice, truth and freedom. With countless similar cases, wars bearing names like Operation "Just Cause", "Enduring Freedom", "Iraqi Freedom" and "Restoring Democracy" don't stand up to much argument, particularly by a country which can remorselessly support (both economically and militarily) the practicers of genocide. It really must be asked: Democracy and freedom for who?"

Not so long ago there was an awful case in the news of a very young kid who took his father's handgun and murdered another kid at school. Who's responsible, the kid, or the irresponsible father who brought him up badly and allowed him access to a murderous weapon? "Pops!" the public screamed and rightly so. Putting a known cretin like Saddam Hussein in power and selling him chemical weapons that he subsequently used on his neighbour and those that defied him, who's responsible? The same goes for Osama bin Laden, a clever monster trained in the use of all kinds of techniques of terrorism ("sabotage") and murder by U.S. special forces to put a thorn in the Soviets side. Brzezinski who served as Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor at the time brazenly claimed in an interview that this brought the Soviet Union to its knees and ended the cold war; "What is most important to the history of the world?" he raved, "The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?" But the bill of training such a ruthless killer is just starting to be paid now. With our backing of Israel's aggressive foreign policy, bin Laden has promised more to come. And no amount of rhetoric about "fighting evil" washes the dirt off our hands for creating it.

The reaction after 9-11 around the world was overwhelmingly sorrow for the innocent victims of this cowardly attack on civilians. People like you and me, not third world unfortunates staring from the uncomfortable side of the TV screen.
What did these people have to do with affairs in the Middle East?
Nothing. And everything. Unfortunately the answer for those that died and almost every U.S. citizen. Because those atrocities that have been done in our name, we don't care enough about to find out about. And those being done now, in spite of a transparent layer of slimy lies and manipulations that a child could figure out, we support. Around 64% according to the polls. I don't trust the polls too much anymore but if the figure is anything like this, if we can support an invasion of a sovereign country and the killing of innocent civilians for utterly false pretexts, then we have supported state terrorism. And those that can will look for revenge. Bush has done a good job says the public. With all his new recruits I'm sure Osama bin Laden is feeling successful too.

And Afghanistan? Long gone down the memory hole- they can go back to being poor and shat on. Who cares? How many Iraqis died? We never asked because our inherent racism never classified them as people like you and me. They would be if we didn't think it was up to us to choose their leaders and they could enjoy their wealth, be educated, clothed and fed and have the same dreams as us. That's how terrorists can hold the American public responsible, simply for not caring what injustices the United States inflicts on their people.

People are dazed. Some refuse or are afraid to ask too many questions about so many lies. There's the likely hood of the public humiliation of being branded a "traitor." Safer and easier to accept the official version that we went to war, sacrificed billions of dollars (in spite of a problematic internal economy), hundreds of American lives, close ties with our allies, all because we just want to help those poor Iraqis be free like us. Sounds good but just doesn't sound right. Those against our government's murderous foreign policy don't know who to vote for. The opposition doesn't have the balls to scream about even one of the plethora of lies we are subjected to. The fact that the Republicans are wrong does not automatically make the Democrats right, although they seem like the more peaceful choice. Dig a little deeper and you will find that the Democrats have also supported murderous foreign dictators like Surharto just the same. Or recently sold high tech military helicopters to Israel that are now murdering Palestinian civilians. That's why they're not shouting too loudly, many have their hands dirty here and if we truly believe in the idea of freedom, not just for us, but for all, it's up to us to investigate what wrongs have been done and to hold those responsible accountable. Most importantly we have to make sure that mass murder in our name never happens again. That's our democratic right, our responsibility to those that don't have our freedoms, and the smart thing to do to prevent future 9-11s.