It was raining that morning, but I decided to take an early run anyway.
I had been drinking a bit the night before and needed to sweat out my slight hangover.
It was an uneventful run, although the steady precipitation did eat away at my resolve, and I cut it short after only a couple of miles.
When I got back to the house, I walked in on a message being left on the answering machine. It was from a friend of mine who was putting me up for a few days while I was in Ann Arbor on business.
“Hey, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center in New York. Turn on the TV.”
And that’s when it began…
The first image I saw was of a burning building. The second, which was live, was an airplane slamming into the side of one of the towers. I had just witnessed the second strike — in real time. My stomach sank and my fingers shook. I immediately ran to the phone to call my sister, who was living in New York at the time. But I couldn’t get through. I tried calling family and friends… nothing.
Was this really happening?
Like most Americans, I vividly remember September 11, 2001. I remember spending most of the day terrified that my family and friends in New York were hurt or even dead. I remember feeling helpless, anxious, and most of all angry.
I wanted revenge. I wanted whoever was responsible for this to pay the ultimate price. And I know I wasn’t alone.
But little did I know at the time that the eventual retaliation would be sorely misguided, ineffective, and result in what would turn out to be a never-ending war.
Nothing Good Can Come from This
It’s been 12 years since the attack on the Twin Towers. Since then, the United States has launched numerous wars and attacks throughout the Middle East.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone are actually expected to cost us about $6 trillion, or roughly $75,000 for every American household. And of course and more importantly, the death toll for our soldiers continues to rise, as does the death toll for innocent civilians.
There are few Americans today who want to continue this trend, and even fewer who want to pursue any further military involvement in that region.
So when the President of the United States tells the world that he wants to strike Syria to avenge the actions of the Assad regime, it should come as no surprise that few support him.
Don’t get me wrong; the images of all those folks who were killed with chemical weapons, the dead bodies lined up in the streets, the children screaming and crying as their parents try desperately to soothe them… who in his right mind could turn away from that?
And the millions of refugees pouring into neighboring countries and makeshift tent cities…
To deny this is a major crisis would be naïve and irresponsible.
But here’s the problem: Historically speaking, there is absolutely no reason to believe that anything good can come from a U.S.-led strike in Syria.
Altruism is for Suckers
There is no doubt in my mind that this is not an altruistic endeavor, but rather just another instance of a government controlled by special interests.
While I’m not some tree-hugging zealot who wants to topple Big Oil with letter-writing campaigns and fruitless demonstrations, don’t think for a second that our oil interests don’t play a major role when it comes to our military involvement in the Middle East.
Although Syria doesn’t produce much oil, it does sit very close to major oil transit points, including the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, and the Sumed pipeline. And though the media continues to downplay the potential of an attack on Syria engulfing other countries into yet another war, the potential still exists. And you know as well as I do that if that happens, $120 oil would be just the beginning.
There’s a lot of money at stake here. And it wouldn’t take much more than a bombed pipeline or affected transit point where tankers move crude on a daily basis to push oil prices up by at least eight to ten percent.
Filthy Lucre
Also worth pointing out is the connection between the steady flow of defense industry lucre to our elected officials and last week’s Senate vote which supported military attacks in Syria.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, committee members that voted to support military action have received an average of $72,850 in defense campaign financing between 2007 and 2012. Those who voted against military action averaged $39,770.
Here’s how the most recent vote pencils out in terms of how much the defense industry shelled out:
Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising, considering a single Tomahawk cruise missile can run as much as $1.4 million a pop.
Certainly, I can’t prove without a shadow of doubt that this connection is anything more than a coincidence. But I find it hard to believe that money hasn’t played a role. Money always plays a role!
And while I suspect there are plenty of war-mongering loyalists and Obama apologists that will try to justify this as an honorable action, one must consider why we haven’t also taken similar “honorable actions” in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and North Korea… Hell, Kim Jong-Un makes Assad look like an amateur, but I don’t see naval fleets in the Sea of Japan with cruise missiles aimed toward Pyongyang.
Look, I’m not trying to make light of the tragedies that are going on all over the world. It sickens me that so many innocent lives are lost every day to the actions of ruthless dictators and dogmatic extremists. And I would love nothing more than to offer a solution.
But I don’t know what that solution is.
What I do know is that this nation needs to drastically reassess its goals. Because with every new war waged — and every dollar spent behind closed doors to protect special interests — we seem to inflict more pain on our own people, as well as others throughout the world.
Tired of the Lies
All this being said, I obviously don’t have access to the intelligence that’s being analyzed in Washington. And perhaps there is some piece of evidence that supports a strike in Syria.
However, there was evidence to support a strike in Iraq —and look where that got us.
We’ve been lied to so many times, it boggles my mind how any of these guys in Washington would expect that we would believe them this time.
I’m tired of the lies. I’m tired of the misinformation. And most of all, I’m just tired of this country constantly being at war with other nations and with ourselves.
Divided by contentious labels and instigative media gatekeepers, we fight amongst each other while the smoke and dust from all these scuffles cloaks the view of what has mutated into a war machine that seems to have gone haywire.
It was 12 years ago this week that kicked this war machine into overdrive. But I think we’ve had enough. Because I fear that if we don’t stop thinning out the world’s population with missiles and drones, we will be doomed to live in a world where peace and prosperity will be little more than a historical reference.
I’m all for lending a helping hand to assure that others may live in peace — but not this way.
And as for those folks in Washington who believe we should attack Syria immediately… I think they should agree to go to Syria before the attacks begin, and stay there until they’re over. Just a thought.
In remembrance of all those we lost on September 11, I wish you a peaceful day filled with happiness, joy, wealth, and prosperity.
Live honorably, live free…
Jeff Siegel for Freedom Watch
