Anniversary

It's been eleven years, now.  I've written about that day quite a bit. 

My conclusions remain the same: I do not remember the murder of three thousand American citizens with grief.  I remember it with rage. 

What do I call all of the "collateral damage" in the Middle East, in all of the conflicts that the United States hasn't had the testicular fortitude to pursue a victory in?  A decent start.

We won in Japan because we showed a willingness to cause substantial damage and loss of life before we started rebuilding.  We didn't arbitrarily declare a victory we hadn't earned, we bombed the fuck out of those who were ramming planes into our ships. 

We've pretty much lost any chance at victory in the Middle East.  All we have succeeded at is keeping them (mostly) occupied on their own soil, instead of ours.  Our "leaders" assumed that the governments and people we've been fighting have a quality that they don't: that of being civilized.  Housebroken. 

I will repeat: I do not care that the people over there are supposedly innocent.  Innocent people do not dance in the streets when a nation on the other side of the world from them are viciously attacked without warning.  I do not care that they're supposedly helpless, unarmed.  They outnumber those that are in charge and armed by more than enough to take out the governments.  I do not care that they're fed propaganda, and are ignorant and uneducated.  It is more than possible to realize that, and take steps to fucking change it. 

These people may be homo sapiens...if barely, by their behavior, but they've never left the ninth century. 

They need to be bombed back into the ninth century.  They need to be bombed into complete and unconditional surrender.  Then they need to be drug, kicking and screaming, into the twenty-first century, with their religion re-examined the way Christianity has been examined and re-examined throughout the reformation and enlightenment.  They need to be brought into the human race, not permitted to exist as mere advanced monkeys with nothing more than a tribal culture.

Then, maybe, I can remember September 11, 2001, with the grief it deserves, rather than the icy cold rage of the unresolved act of war that it remains.