My memories of 9/11 have faded a little bit over the last 22 years but still pretty vivid for the most part. I find it hard to fathom that there are adults that have no personal memories of that day. Pretty much anyone under the age of 27 or so won’t have any personal recollection of what happened on 9/11. How sad.

But much else is connected to that day…that many have forgotten or never knew…or have blindly ignored. Maybe in the bigger scheme of things, these events are the most important. I haven’t forgotten:

• • The FBI, CIA, ICE, NSA all had information that an attack was coming, knew that the hijackers involved were taking flying lessons, and the terrorists had over stayed their visas. And yet…they failed to stop that horrific event. A bit strange, don’t ya think?
  • In less than two months after 9/11 the Patriot Act was passed and signed into law. The Patriot Act was the single biggest reduction of American rights, liberties, and freedoms in the history of the United States. It created the largest and best funded federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies the world has ever known. Think about that…when has Congress ever moved that fast? And all done by a conservative Republican President and both houses of Congress controlled by Republicans. Think about that one.
  • Barely a month after 9/11 the United States invaded the sovereign nation of Afghanistan and overthrew their government. That invasion began a decades long war with Afghanistan that cost the United States trillions of dollars…and tens of thousands of US military causalities. And along the way we killed 10’s of thousands of Afghanistan civilians…many of which died at the hands of CIA operations during weddings and funerals. And for what? When America finally retreated from Afghanistan we left the Taliban in control, al-Qaeda able to move freely, and gave them billions and billions of dollars of highly advanced military equipment. Huuuummmmmm???
  • 18 months after 9/11 we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq and overthrew their government. That invasion began a decades long war with Iraq that cost the US trillions of dollars, thousands of US military dead, 10’s of thousands of US military wounded, 250,000-500,000 dead Iraqi civilians, bombed them into the stone-age, and for what again? Tell me again exactly why we invaded Iraq?
  • Let’s talk money…in 2000 Clinton had a budget surplus. Starting with Bush #2 (post-9/11) the US started a budget deficit of $158billion his first year, ended his presidency running $1.4trillion deficit. Obama started with $1.3trillion budget deficits, ended with a $665billion budget deficit. Trump started with $780billion budget deficit, ended with $2.8trillion budget deficit. (note: in 2020 Trump ran up a $3.1trillion budget deficit.) Biden…well, his first year was $1.4trillion, 2023 looks as if it will exceed $2trillion with ease. So our federal government has spent us down a hole each year, Trump being the worst offender. So 2 Democrats and 2 Republican Presidents have no respect for taxpayer money…and no self-control on how they spend it. Oh, FWIW…during those years…both Republicans and Democrats controlled Congress at one time or another.
  • Let’s keep talking money…in 2000 (under Clinton) the US national debt was $5trillion. In 2022 (under Biden) the US national debt had grown to $31trillion. In 2000 (under Clinton) the US national debt equaled 55% of GDP. In 2022 (under Biden) the US national debt equaled 123% of GDP.
  • One last piece of money information…per year average growth in US national debt: Bush averaged $525billion annually, Obama averaged $963billion annually, Trump averaged $1.7trillion annually, and Biden averaged $2.5trillion.

9/11 was a horrific day in the history of America…there is no doubt about that. I lost 343 brother and sister firefighters that day. America lost 3,000 of our citizens that day. A tragedy like none other.

But what has been lost since then has been even more tragic…and it came upon us from the US federal government. We’ve lost 10’s of thousands of military casualties…about 44 veterans now die each day by suicide.

We’ve spent 10’s of trillions of dollars since 9/11 that we didn’t have and for what? For war against sovereign nations that accomplished nothing. And trillions more to create US federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that are used to take away rights, liberties, and freedoms from US citizens. The same citizens that ironically are paying the bill for that reduction of rights/freedoms/liberty.

How interesting…the US suffers the worst disaster in its history…that our government had ample prior information about…and 22 years later what exactly has happened? How did we respond? What has been gained? What has been lost? Who has really gained since then?

Both Republicans and Democrats Congresses have betrayed us. Four US Presidents, 2-Republicans & 2-Democrats, have betrayed us.

Sooooooooo, maybe the better question to ask…

Why have we, US citizens, allowed all this bullshit to happen in the first place?

No, I will never forget 9/11…nor will I forget the last 22 years.

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• That day……9/11

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