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BY MYT IPEN



eptember 11, 2001 is a date that can never be forgotten in the history of America. It¶s a day that will
forever be associated with ignominy. A day that will, for as long as America exists, be considered
one of the darkest in the life of the country.

It was on this day that a group of terrorists hijacked four U.. commercial airliners taking off from
different locations around the country for a planned attack. First they crashed two of the airplanes
into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, leveling both towers and killing
thousands of people.

hortly afterwards, a third airliner crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. causing a
reasonable amount of damage while killing almost 200 people. Finally, a fourth airliner, which was
also believed to be headed towards Washington, crashed outside hanksville, Pennsylvania, killing
all 45 people on board. The combined casualty figures from that black day was in the upwards of
5500 people.

That attack would mark the first time that terrorists from abroad had succeeded in breaching
America¶s homeland with such a major terror attack. Other tries before then had been mostly
unsuccessful or with very little impact when compared.

Most other successful attacks prior to eptember 11, had been outside the country on U. interests
and I will mention just a few of those here solely to refresh our memories.

To mention just a few in a long line of such attacks, I will start with the April 1983 suicide car
bombing at the U. embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people including 17 Americans. Looking back, I
would say that this particular attack marked the beginning of America¶s problems with sustained
Islamist terror attacks. This is mainly because it seemed to open a floodgate of extremely violent
terror attacks against the United tates.

After that, I will cite the December, 21, 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, cotland which
killed all 259 people on board including 189 Americans. America was clearly the target of that
bombing.

The next one I¶ll cite is the June 25, 1995 bomb on a fuel truck that exploded on a U.. Air Force
base in audi Arabia which killed 19 U.. military personnel.

Then came the U.. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania of August 7, 1998. Those bombings
killed 13 U.. citizens in all, 12 in kenya and 1 in Tanzania.

Finally, on my list is the bombing of the destroyer U Cole in Yemen which killed 17 sailors and
injured 39 on October 12, 2000.

ince after the eptember 11, 2001 attacks, there have been a number of other attempts on the
homeland that have been foiled. The latest is the Time  uare, New York attempt by the Pakistani
born U.. citizen Faisal hazhad who tried to detonate a home made bomb in an UV.

Even though this attempt was foiled, the statements made by the accused bomber during his
arraignment got me thinking about what role, if any, the policies of the United tates plays in
instigating the terror attacks that we get.

During his arraignment, when asked why he did it, Mr. hazhad made these statements ³ It¶s a war,
I¶m going to plead guilty a hundred times over because until the hour the U.. pulls its forces from
Ira and Afghanistan and stops the drone strikes, we¶ll be attacking the U..´ When asked by the
judge if he knew there were going to be women and children among his victims Mr. hazhad
continued ³well, the drone hits in Ira and Afghanistan they don¶t see children or women, they kill
everybody.´ ³It¶s a war and in a war they kill people, they¶re killing muslims.´ ³You have to
understand where I¶m coming from,´ he told the judge, ³I consider myself a muslim soldier.´

I think that despite what anybody might think about Mr. hazhad's statements, and, or his mental
state,one thing is undisputable and that's the fact that these wars actually make more enemies than
friends for us. We may claim that we¶re fighting to spread democracy around the world but if we look
more closely, we will discover that what we¶re really trying to do is impose our way of life on people
who will rather not have it. If we¶re truthful we might realize that we have no right to impose our way
of life on anybody else. We might realize that it¶s as a result of our silly egotism that we believe our
way of life to be the best. And we might realize that it¶s this egotistic uest which brings the attacks
that we get and as long as we keep on that uest, the attacks will keep coming and will keep getting
worse and worse.

Quite right, a few of these people might like our way but, the truth is that the majority will always
prefer the natural way of life into which they were born. We¶ve always found this out everywhere
we¶ve been on this stupid mission, take Vietnam, Ira and now, Afghanistan for instance. I think that
continuing on this useless and egotistic mission will only bring more grief to America. When you go
around the world killing people, even if you claim to be spreading democracy, you can only end up
like the U. has, with more enemies than friends, and when you have such mortal enemies, you can
never be, or feel safe. Anyone who thinks America is safer from fighting these wars isn't telling
themselves the truth.

The statements from Mr. hazhad remind me of an African adage which says that ³The child that
says its mother will not sleep, will, itself, not sleep.´ Another adage of indeterminate origins states
that ³Those who live by the sword, also die by the sword.´ The truth is never hidden. It is there for
everyone to see, who open their eyes. That truth is that America will not be safe from terrorism as
long as it keeps barging around the world terrorizing others. You might not believe that what America
does is terrorism but here is the definition of terrorism according to dictionary.com. ³The use of
violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.´ Remember guns and
bombs to spread democracy? Does that sound like violence and political purpose?

President Obama¶s former pastor said, in a sermon, after eptember 11 that ³America¶s chickens
have come home to roost.´ and everybody screamed bloody murder but the truth is that those
chickens will continue coming home to roost until America stops hatching them.

³The corpse looks like a log of wood when it belongs to someone else¶s loved one´ This is another
African adage. The eptember 11 attacks killed less than 5500 people and we¶re still mourning them
today. Imagine how long the Ira is and Afghans will have to mourn the hundreds of thousands of
their people that have been killed, and continue to be killed, by American bombs and guns, mostly
for no just cause.

Many Americans are allergic to the truth. They don¶t want to say or hear the truth. Be that as it may, I
will tell the truth and, that truth is that, contrary to what anyone might think or believe, an American
life is in no way, superior to any other life, anywhere in the world. To think otherwise is to continue
living in this fools paradise where a very rude awakening awaits.

America needs to walk in peace in order to know peace. ³Do unto others«««