September 11, 2001.

I crawled into my mother's car after a rough and tough day of fifth grade. She was on her cell phone, tears streaming down her eyes. When she hung up, she explained to me about planes crashing into buildings.

We went over to my grandmother's house that night. Throughout the evening, I continued to watch the same plane hit the same building. I continued to see the same building collapse. 3000 + people dead? I did not even know 3000 people! And, of course, myself being a 10 year old paranoid child, I feared that terrorists would fly a plane through the house that night.

The next day the papers were streaming with pictures, stories, and letters or comments from other countries. Almost the entire world grieved for the US. Brother was brother once again. Men who knew nothing of saftey went to New York to help clean up. Everyone seemed to reunite. Most importantly of all, everyone seemed to love their country again and even democrats stood behind Bush.

This is when I started getting interested in politics.

Almost 5 years later, and the US is practically in ruins. A very low approval rating of Bush spreads throughout the world, and millions are saying that the war is nonsensical. I mean, what good is it to fix another country if you cannot fix your own? Problems arised such as the after affects of Katrina, the US and Dubai port deals, etc, etc. "American" seems to be a shameful word to call someone these days. No one even remembers common courtesy, no one smiles, they just complain. I have seen it here on Political Forum, also. Very few choose to put humor or lightness on this site, even in the off topic chat or satire section. Some I have seen have chosen the path to call everyone ignorant and egotistically think they are better than all the rest.

I am not necessarily backing the war. But, as some of you may already know, my father is a SSG field medic who is currently serving his second 18 month term in Iraq. It is not really the best thing in the world, but you really get a different perspective of what is going on. In the news, all you here is of is deaths and bombs. You never hear the accomplishments. Let me tell you of some that my dad has done since he served his last term:

1. He has nurtured and cared for Iraqi children. They would run up to the Buffalo, which is a 12 foot tall vehicle, and ask for vitamins and candy. Willingly, the soldiers pack these in the car when the children do.
2. His platoon alone had discovered and disarmed over 200 roadside bombs in a ten month period. This reduced the risk of harm done to citizens.
3. During the election period for the Iraqi Constitution, you had to have a special sticker on your car to drive (for saftey purposes). Two men who did not have a sticker desperately wanted to vote, so my father and his platoon personally escorted them there.
4. My father treated several wounds due to shrapnel from roadside bombs. There was only one death altogether, and even though that is still not good, it is pretty nice to see that the odds of dying were very slim.
5. Through the war, my father has been faithful to his country. He has been faithful to Bush. He is a patriotic man, and I think he is the perfect model of a US soldier.

So this is a soldier's point of view on Bush. I am not saying all soldiers think like that.

Bush is not perfect, and in fact, even I don't like him, but you have to respect him. He is the president of the United States of America, and even though he has made some bad decisions, he has done it for the right intentions.

God bless America.

Comments?

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I guess I can agree with that. Since denouncing my conspiracy-buff days, I've come to realize that the neocons, at least Bush, have initiated their policies because they believe them right. I personally think those policies are lawed, but I really don't expect Gore would have done much different. Only the rhetoric would have changed. Though I think he may have done a better job of getting our allies on board, even if not as good as we'd hope. Presidents are not omnipotent and we had to expect some kind of reaction to 9/11. A quick, not-well-thought-out action was almost inevitable.

I guess I'll share my 9/11. It's not quite so heart-warming.
I had just quit my job on the assumption that I could find another one quickly. Didn't happen. A friend of mine (back then- not anymore) was over and brought some weed and we woke up on 9/11 and got stoned. I had no TV and no idea what was going on. I finally crept out of the house at about ten to go to the party store and pick up a Coke or something. At the time, I was very much thinking that my life was going to hit rock-bottom and beginning to plan finding a commune or becoming a transient tourist-trap worker when I would lose my apartment in the next month.
Walked into the party store, stoned. Didn't really notice what was on the TV. Saw a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a long time. She said that we were bombed. That was a surreal moment for me. "Huh?"
It would be a few hours before I was clued in to what had happened. It seemed unreal. I could not bring myself to believe something like that actually happened. To give further context, I was fully convinced that the events in the Book of Revelations were coming true and came up with a whole lot of paranoid thoughts on the matter.
Since then I figured out that the world was not going to end and, thanks to family, my life did not hit rock-bottom. There seems to be a lesson in that.

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That information is classified and to be given only on a need-to-know basis...

And I do not need to know.

On September 11th I got up in the morning to find my father grimly watching the news. I wasn't up when he saw the first airplane hit. I think that the first building had already collapsed and my father and I watched together as the second tower collapsed. We both just said, "Oh no!". I woke up my mother and told her it was "Armageddon". I wasn't religious at the time, so I meant it in a figurative sense, since I believed the whole country was going to be destroyed. I criticize this administration's reaction, but to be fair, my reaction was far from admirable. On that day I vowed that I would punch any Arab who walked past our house, and over the next few days I ranted about how I wanted to see bin Laden and other senior Al-Qaeda leaders hanged from the top of the Empire State Building. I am now very ashamed of those remarks. My only defense is that I was 16 at the time and not very mentally stable (I'm still rather crazy).

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

Many people reacted in very similar ways. It is the nature of trauma. It is not right, but it's understandable.

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That information is classified and to be given only on a need-to-know basis...

And I do not need to know.

I am glad you did not hit rock-bottom. After all, where would Political Forum be without Java? Very touching story.

Sadly, that is how most people felt. Just like how America had imprisoned or held all Japenese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. We sometimes think it justified to strike back. Just remember this: you are not getting even, you are stooping down to their level to get even.

These are some very touching stories. Anyone else got any?

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