"To be safe or not to be safe? That is the question": 9/11

No one in America or the world could have even come close to imagining how much the world was about to change on that sunny, early autumn day in September, 2001. When you ask American's to reflect back on 9/11, none of them say that they imagined that on that day, when they woke up, they would witness right before their very eyes the death of 2977 innocent people within an hour's time, see two buildings that were landmarks of America's capitalism and financial strength topple to ash, fathom that anyone could come close to striking the Pentagon which is quite possibly the most famous symbol of military might in the world,  or months later the United States would begin a war that almost 2 decades later  would still be ongoing. The shock was only increased with the news that a plane had crashed in a Pennsylvania fields killing everyone aboard after its passengers had rushed the cockpit trying to stop hijackers.  Most importantly, Americans couldn't fathom the dark world of polarization, financial despair, and national security policies that would be adopted turning the once "Live Free or Die" mentality of this great land into a land of wire-tapping and violated civil liberties in the name of the "War on Terrorism." After all, these things happened in Tom Clancy books and in Russia, not in the United States of America.  Wrong. 

As the days and weeks progressed following 9/11 there was great "sense" of patriotism.  Americans became proud by each day hearing stories of everyday public service heroes who went up the stairs of the World Trade Center Towers as everybody was frantically going down trying to escape. Stories of phone recordings began to depict the super hero- like actions of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who sacrificed their own lives to bring down their hijacked plane thwarting the hijackers plans to crash the Boeing 757 into the White House had everybody all over the country quoting passenger Todd Beamer's famous last words, "Let's Roll." America was on a patriotic "high" and the come down was about to crash not just individuals and American moral but also the economy and very foundation and constitution that the United States was built on.  

Who could forget the famous National Terrorism Advisory System that the newly Homeland Security Department had so miraculously come up with?  American's suddenly felt “safer” glued to their televisions looking for “the color of the day” just like Smokey the Bear warning elementary school children of the danger level of forest fires. Fear had taken over America overnight and invaded homes and lives like a thief in the night stealing any real sense of reality and what being an American was all about. The President was easily given the power to thrust the country into two wars that has already cost American Taxpayers close to $1 trillion and, according to the Center for Budget and Policies, will account for almost half the projected national debt of $20 trillion by 2019.  That's not even the tip of the iceberg.   American citizens stood back out of fear and allowed their elected officials to vote “yes” on the Patriot Act which essentially allowed the government to impinge on god given civil liberties by wire-tapping civilian phones and accessing their public library, medical, and financial records without warrants.  Yes, not only did America allow its own government to spy on them, but they PAID, and continue to pay, them to do it.  

America's dirty little secret is not just the NSA; it's also the fact that the defense division of the government employs over 800,000 employees, most of them private contractors, and those same private contractors not only don't have to answer to Congress, but they also are enticing government employees to work for their firms, and then turning around and "renting" them back out to the same federal agencies they hired them from at 2-3 times the cost. On top of that, it would take all day to explain how the American intelligence world has, currently, 51 agencies that do the same job of federally tracking terrorist's flow of money.  ("The 'Top Secret America' Created by Sept. 11", NPR). No wonder the United States’ government has a problem with oversight of its intelligence community; nobody knows who is coming or going. So why are American tax payers continuously okay with allowing their senators and representatives to write blank checks to the defense departments? It's like giving the wife the Black Card and setting her loose in Barneys during their yearly Christian Louboutin sale:  you just don't do, but America does. 

Some would oppose and insist all the above is to save lives and the future safety of America and subsequently the world.  But is America safer? Are lives being saved? 9/11 cost al Qaeda roughly $500,000 and they killed 2977 people in one day along with another 4340 lives in other attacks all over the world.  What is America’s numerical breakdown on their fight against al Qaeda and terror?  The United States is $3.3 trillion in the hole, all connected to the backlash of 9/11; and the government has instigated two wars that has killed, soldiers and civilians combined, over 140,000 people while, as of 2012,  al Qaeda had lost 50 of its influential leaders.  According to the score board America is not winning, not even close.  

Despite these facts, America is now polarized on the issues more than ever.  Insults are thrown at each other faster than at the family Thanksgiving table when the subject of national security is brought up.  In general, the Republicans will be the first to claim that the above is worth all the costs and the only way to deal with terrorism is to strike first, hard, and aggressively.  Democrats, on the other hand, couldn't agree more; they believe that the course the government has taken in response to 9/11 has cost too many lives, destroyed the country morally and financially, and are not working. Most importantly, Democrats now believe that, if allowed to continue, the Patriot Act will forever compromise the very civil liberties that makes America the beacon of freedom to the rest of the World.  

As America looks ahead to upcoming international affairs such as the Russia/Crimenia/Ukraine controversy, they must realize that things will only get worse unless they commit to moving on using 9/11 truly as a learning experience, which has yet to be done.  Politicians need to stop trying to sway voters by using their fears from 9/11 and insecurity over national security as ways to sway the vote, but citizens must also realize that the true power lies in the constituents.  Conservative or Liberal, maybe it's time to really commit to Obama's plan of alienating al Qaeda from the majority of the Islam world.  The reality is that newly instigated revolutions such as Arab Spring seem to be more of a threat to al Qaeda and their supreme goal of establishing a "caliphate” than any War on Terror raged against them  ("The World After 9/11: Part I", Bruce Riedel; Yale Global online).  Despite what most Americans are lead to believe by the media and political leaders, the Islam world detests extremists; the concept goes against every aspect of their religion and the Koran.  Instead of trying to alienate itself from the Islam world, The United States should recognize that they may quite possibly be its most powerful ally when it comes to fighting and eliminating al Qaeda. 

It is important America looks at the mistakes of the Soviet Union during their war with the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1980's.  More focus needs to be brought on issues such as the conflicts between Pakistan and India, and the fact that the largest al Qaeda support now lies in the heart of Pakistan and its government.  Iraq needs to be counseled on how to improve Sunni and Shiite relations to avoid further recruitment by al Qaeda of disenfranchised citizens, and focus how civil wars in countries like Syria can be used for recruitment purposes by terrorists.  Hindsight is 20/2 so maybe it’s time to use the past to regain perfect vision of how to better the future.  America must find a way to bring bipartisanship back so the country can confront the one issue that threatens America more than any nuclear weapon or terrorist threat: separation.  9/11 was meant to separate the country as a nation and make Americans prisoners of their own fear, and they have done and become just that while al Qaeda hides behind the chess board screaming, "Check Mate."