On 9/11 and the Islamic State

By Sami Khaliq
For a long time, I found myself in denial of what happened on 9/11, I didnt want to blame
Muslim extremists, because for one I was Muslim and I didnt want to acknowledge that Muslims like
that even existed and two, some uneducated bearded 3
rd
world Arabs hiding in a cave shouldnt have
been able to conduct the deadliest attack on US soil, at least not without help. Also, there was
something fishy surrounding 9/11, for example Osama bin Laden was once working with the United
States and Pakistan to help fight against the Soviets in the Afghan war, he was a former partner.
Among other fishy details was that the Sec. of Defense on September 10, 2001 stated that the Pentagon
could not account for approximately 2 trillion dollars in defense transactions, of course this got little
media attention as the attacks occurred early the next day. I continued to believe that there was
something misleading about the whole situation but I realized what I think happened is irrelevant.
Everyone believed it was independently acting Muslim extremists and whether it was true or not, it was
indisputable in public.
Following the attacks, Bush said something along the lines of they did it because they hated
our liberty. This line and similar lines have been repeated over the years and I have only become more
fed up with it. These Muslim extremists dont hate us because we are good and they are evil, there is
more to it than that. Rarely are conflicts so black and white. If I said this back in 2001, I would have
been labeled un-American, hopefully that has changed. Why do Islamic extremists hate us, its because
weve done some bad things. Im not saying that those killed deserved it, of course not, but we have
aggravated some people in our history, and created enemies. For example the US led UN resolution
687, passed four days after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990. The sanctions stayed in effect until
the US had gotten enough of Saddam Hussains regime and went to war with Iraq in 2003. UNICEF
estimated that the sanctions were responsible for the death of 500,000 children in the resulting famine.
That may have pissed some people off. What about our involvement in overthrowing the
democratically elected government in Iran led by Mohammed Mosaddegh by the CIA and then
replacing him with an oppressive Shah. Again, we created enemies with our action.
When our enemies look at the United States, they do not see the good that we have done,
because we have done good too, we are not inherently evil, we are a symbol of hope and democracy
throughout the world. Sometimes our good intentions have bad consequences, for example when we
aided forces in Afghanistan; we helped keep the Soviets from imposing their will on the Afghan people.
But we also helped arm and create some of the groups we are fighting today, like the Taliban. Oops.
The United States and its capitalist culture are not the most attractive either, in America we idolize
people like Kim Kardashian, we talk about sex openly, and shows like South Park insult literally
everyone. This culture has created enemies. So when our enemies attacked us, we were surprised but
we shouldnt have been. Im not saying killing 3000 civilians is ever acceptable, but we should have
known that there were those out there that blame us for killing their children, for representing an
imperial and materialistic west, and involving ourselves in conflicts without knowing what we were
doing, they hate us not because we are free but because we killed their children. Is that hate not
justified?
So here we are today, the 13
th
anniversary of the worst attack on American soil, about to
extend our War on Terror, still living in fear of radical Islam and whatever else is out there. Here is
where I believe the terrorists have won: The point of terrorists is to instill fear in people. After 9/11 we
passed the PATRIOT Act, which makes it legal for the government to go through your cell phone,
internet, and media data in order to PROTECT YOU. We are so scared, that we surrendered our 4
th

amendment right, the terrorists beat us on that one. That is a decision that our fear determined, an
emotion, emotions shouldnt be part of legislature, laws should be comprised of logical level-headed
thought. And that is hardly the first place, we got involved in our first ever pre-emptive war, meaning
we started it, and had little reason to do so in Iraq. We got involved in Iraq because we believed that
we needed to fire our gun first, although we were holding a bazooka, and Iraq had a pistol. Once
again, Fear made a decision for us. And that is the point of Terror.
I am tired of living in fear, and living with fearful people, because this fear is irrational. You
are more likely to be killed by a vending machine than you are from a terrorist. You are more likely to
be struck by lightning than you are to be killed by Al-Qaeda. Its been 13 years and we still have not
lost our fear. Today, we start an offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq. ISIS is a bunch of thugs
that we need to remove but Fox News showed a poll the other day that said 90% of Americans see ISIS
as a threat to America, ISIS is a group of thug Sunni Muslims that dont get along with their Shia
neighbors, they number less than 20,000 men. I thought the US was getting involved to prevent these
thugs from hurting any other people, not because we were scared of them. But of course, these bearded
Muslim terrorists remind us of those other bearded Muslim terrorists so we are scared of them. We
have been carrying the burden on 9/11, its time we let go, the pain of that day has been in our hearts
for far too long.