From TomDispatch

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Tear Down the Freedom Tower

Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 7:57am, September 8, 2011.

[Note to TomDispatch Readers: The remarkable Timothy MacBain’s interview with me today marks the 100th he’s done for TomDispatch.  He operates with little but his native intelligence, a great radio voice, and the most minimal of equipment.  It’s a small miracle. To catch today’s TomCast audio interview in which, among other things, I think back to the ways in which the original 9/11 rites and ceremonies led to this website, click here, or download it to your iPod here.  If you want to wander among the previous 99 interviews, click here.  Tom]

Let’s Cancel 9/11
Bury the War State's Blank Check at Sea
By Tom Engelhardt

Let’s bag it.

I’m talking about the tenth anniversary ceremonies for 9/11, and everything that goes with them: the solemn reading of the names of the dead, the tolling of bells, the honoring of first responders, the gathering of presidents, the dedication of the new memorial, the moments of silence.  The works.

Let’s just can it all.  Shut down Ground Zero.  Lock out the tourists.  Close “Reflecting Absence,” the memorial built in the “footprints” of the former towers with its grove of trees, giant pools, and multiple waterfalls before it can be unveiled this Sunday.  Discontinue work on the underground National September 11 Museum due to open in 2012.  Tear down the Freedom Tower (redubbed 1 World Trade Center after our “freedom” wars went awry), 102 stories of “the most expensive skyscraper ever constructed in the United States.” (Estimated price tag: $3.3 billion.)  Eliminate that still-being-constructed, hubris-filled 1,776 feet of building, planned in the heyday of George W. Bush and soaring into the Manhattan sky like a nyaah-nyaah invitation to future terrorists.  Dismantle the other three office towers being built there as part of an $11 billion government-sponsored construction program.  Let’s get rid of it all.   If we had wanted a memorial to 9/11, it would have been more appropriate to leave one of the giant shards of broken tower there untouched.

Ask yourself this: ten years into the post-9/11 era, haven't we had enough of ourselves?  If we have any respect for history or humanity or decency left, isn’t it time to rip the Band-Aid off the wound, to remove 9/11 from our collective consciousness?  No more invocations of those attacks to explain otherwise inexplicable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our oh-so-global war on terror.  No more invocations of 9/11 to keep the Pentagon and the national security state flooded with money.  No more invocations of 9/11 to justify every encroachment on liberty, every new step in the surveillance of Americans, every advance in pat-downs and wand-downs and strip downs that keeps fear high and the homeland security state afloat.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 were in every sense abusive, horrific acts.  And the saddest thing is that the victims of those suicidal monstrosities have been misused here ever since under the guise of pious remembrance.  This country has become dependent on the dead of 9/11 -- who have no way of defending themselves against how they have been used -- as an all-purpose explanation for our own goodness and the horrors we’ve visited on others, for the many towers-worth of dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere whose blood is on our hands.

Isn’t it finally time to go cold turkey?  To let go of the dead?  Why keep repeating our 9/11 mantra as if it were some kind of old-time religion, when we’ve proven that we, as a nation, can’t handle it -- and worse yet, that we don’t deserve it?

We would have been better off consigning our memories of 9/11 to oblivion, forgetting it all if only we could.  We can’t, of course.  But we could stop the anniversary remembrances.  We could stop invoking 9/11 in every imaginable way so many years later.  We could stop using it to make ourselves feel like a far better country than we are.  We could, in short, leave the dead in peace and take a good, hard look at ourselves, the living, in the nearest mirror.

Comments

[Wing Nut]

I have to completely disagree with this far left wing rant. When I think of 9-11 the thing I remember most is the recent speech from a young girl who was 5 years old at the time of the attacks. This age strikes me because it is the age of my daughter. By God's grace this girl's father was able to call her (on his cell phone) from the upper levels of one of the burning towers before it collapsed. He was able to tell her goodbye and tell her that he would always watch over her like an angel. To this day she remembers those words and she has clung to them as any daughter would. If that type of story doesn't bring a tear to your eye then nothing will. I'M QUITE SURE SHE WILL NEVER FORGET!

I personally will never forget 9-11 until the threat of terrorism and the spread of Muslim extremism is effectively destroyed. Muslim extremists are without a doubt the biggest threat facing America and our way of life. God help us all if we fail.

Take care,
WN

[Rocky]

Enjoy that 5 year old Wing Nut, they don't remain that innocent very long.

[toonist]

Remember the Alamo!

[Antonio Andolini]

Forget Nam? Never!

[Antonio Andolini]

"And when people are scared, they let bureaucrats spend." John Stossel
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110909/OPINION02/709099986

[Antonio Andolini]

“(i)t’s just too big a moment in all our lives. Even if you’re not American, everyone became an American that day.” Bono
http://nhjournal.com/2011/09/09/u2s-bono-says-hell-be-a-proud-american-on-911/

[toonist]

Yo Antonio WE attacked Nam.

[Antonio Andolini]

"Americans must commit to this struggle for the long term. It will take years, possibly decades, to win the war on terror. That is our future, our reality. It is the most fundamental lesson of Sept. 11." Ted Nugent
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/ten-years-of-gratitude/

[Antonio Andolini]

"They tell us to get over it, they say to move on, and they mean it well: We can't bring an air of tragedy into the future. But I will never get over it. To get over it is to get over the guy who stayed behind on a high floor with his friend who was in a wheelchair. To get over it is to get over the woman by herself with the sign in the darkness: "America You Are Not Alone." To get over it is to get over the guys who ran into the fire and not away from the fire." Peggy Noonan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576558933073846412.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion

[Antonio Andolini]

Meanwhile, our tax dollars flying out the window. Green jobs, jobs, jobs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-searches-shuttered-solyndra-offices-plant-in-california/2011/09/08/gIQAu4kRCK_story.html

[toonist]

Ted Nugent...how the one hit wonder likes to make himself more important than he is!

[Antonio Andolini]

The other reason we cannot just forget.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/9/ap-sources-2-terror-suspects-may-be-us-citizens/

[Antonio Andolini]

"Too many takers — not enough givers.”
http://nhjournal.com/2011/09/02/op-ed-the-welfare-state-too-many-takers-not-enough-givers/

[toonist]

From the link "Too many takers...: "...black teens were more likely to be employed than white teens because they were willing to work for less."
Why not just bring back slavery?

[Rocky]

Good idea toonist, slavery will create jobs, lower crime, (chains make it easy to spot trouble makers)and God knows, they need a good whippin' too.

[Antonio Andolini]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/ten-years-ago/

[Nasir Khan]

Prelude to the War of Terror

By Nasir Khan, September 11, 2011

Nasir Khan blog
 
I fully appreciate the concerns of Mr Engelhardt and agree with him that the attacks of 9/11 were horrific acts. Obviously, in the eyes of the Americans and their friends world-wide the terrorist plot was the work of al-Qaeda and its ubiquitous leader Osama. Thus the bogey of Osama was transformed into something what to believers may seem to be almost a mysterious ghoulish power! As a result, he could be a serious threat to the Empire and the greatest military power in the whole of recorded history. It was as if the fate of God's own country was at stake! We all prayed  for the safety of  America.

The strange thing is that not long ago Osama was a CIA functionary who was trained and equipped to advance American military objectives in Afghanistan against the Soviet military involvement. After the Soviet withdrawal the Osama-CIA liaison came to an end. Now he had turned against his former mentors. After 9/11 the US presented itself almost in the Kafkaesque fashion as a weak beetle that could be crushed by the Great Threat! Even though Osama as a hireling had learnt much from his CIA bosses, he surreptitiously may have kept some of his secret close to his chest. Who knows, as an Arab he might have used some mystical incantations to get the fabled Lamp of Aladdin. Just by rubbing his lamp, he could have the jinni standing in front of him to perform the impossible tasks and also to make himself invisible. The Empire was helpless and the jinni was on the rampage!!

But in a famous documentary film, Loose Change 9/11, produced in 2006, challenged the official explanation of the attacks of  September 11, 2001. It also aroused  a great deal of controversy; it had its supporters and opponents.

Since I am not an expert on the technical details of the attacks which the U.S. authorities offered or the views of those who contradict or refute the official version as in this film, I refrain from passing any final  word on the issues  involved. However, I try to find more about the events and  will continue to do so because this tragic date became the sign-post, which was  used by the  Bush-Cheney administration to  start and justify their wars of  aggression and global terror that resulted in the occupation and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan,  the  deaths of  more than a million people and the uprooting  and destitution of countless millions of people. The present U.S. administration under President Obama has not only continued the wars of aggression of his predecessor but also extended them to other countries and areas by using advanced technologies and weapons to kill and destroy with impunity and without any accountability for his actions to anyone in the United States or anywhere else in the world.

No matter  who were the actual criminals or conspirators who committed the crimes on 9/11 that resulted in the deaths of 2749 Americans, one thing is absolutely clear that the people of Iraq and its ruler Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11.  The people or the rulers of Afghanistan or Pakistan were not involved  in this crime either.  Even if  any individual from Afghanistan or Pakistan may have been involved in this crime in some way or the other that should have been the  act of an individual. The people of Afghanistan or Pakistan had no part in such a crime, but they are still being killed by  the  U.S-led NATO forces and American drone attacks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGLp5TAVpQ&feature=player_embedded

[Rocky]

Well said Nasir. Today I've been watching some of the commemorations of the 9/11 attacks and the pain on the faces of those who lost their loved ones. I in no way wish to diminish their right to grieve for they are truly the victims, but the victims of what or who? I believe the root cause of all this pain and suffering can be traced to our foreign policies and the manner we've implemented these policies since WW2. Great power should be used with humility, but too many become drunk with arrogance. Watching Dick Cheney peddling his book on TV and stating that he has no regrets for the attack and slaughter in Iraq is disgusting. In my opinion, there lies the root cause and reason that we have events such as 9/11. Sadam and Osama may have been evil, but then so are the likes of Dick Cheney, they all have so much in common.

[wood burner]

WOW!! last two posts are SICK!!What the hell world you two from??

[Rocky]

Keep that bucket over your head WB and you can imagine the world to be anything you wish.

[warren]

Yes Wood Burner, Rocky Truly is a piece of You Know What. The kind that occasionally gets left in parks. Very unpleasant on a hot day. It's sickening that We have such stuff living in Our midst.

[Wing Nut]

Very sad Rocky. Equating Bin Laden and Sadam with Dick Cheney. Have you lost your mind or did somebody hit you in the head before that last post?

[Antonio Andolini]

Meanwhile, the green jobs fiasco:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/11/promises-of-green-jobs-start-withering-on-vine/?page=1

[Rocky]

I think Dick Cheney is an arrogant and evil man that would have looked good in a brown shirt 60 years ago.

[Wing Nut]

Rocky,

I think your political orientation is clouding your thinking. You may not like Dick Cheney because his politics are different than yours, but unlike Bin Laden or Sadam he won't kill you because you don't agree with him. Also, Dick Cheney probably wouldn't execute you because you are a practicing Christian instead of a Muslim and I don’t think Dick Cheney ever gassed anybody at the Democratic National Convention.

Perhaps you should think a little more before you post?

Thanks,
WN