Wednesday, September 12, 2007

More Thoughts on 9-11

Sorry about this entry, but I keep thinking about this... I don't want a political blog.. but I am trying to channel my view about all this.

Six years since the events of 9-11. Osama still not captured. Was he the mastermind? I am not convinced entirely; he came up on the radar at the time because of his admitted involvedment in an earlier attempt on the World Trade Center. Certainly he was part of the circle of extremists who carried out the hijackings, but oddly enough, although he has boasted proudly of various terrorist actions (including the first try at bringing down the WTC), he has never openly admitted to being behind 9/11. He has expressed joy at the atrocity, but it seems curious to me that he has not taken more credit.

Bush, embarassingly ignorant of the background and situation in the Middle East, used the events to launch a personal vendetta. What we tend to forget, 6 years on, is that immediately after that horrible day, the world was behind us. Including, with few exceptions, the Islamic world. Why didn't he grasp this opportunity to launch an urgent investigation into the terrorist network, with the help that he was offered by every nation in the region? Osama would, I think have been found in weeks and then we might have found out the truth about the extent of his involvement.

Instead, Bush saw an opportunity to try to increase America's political hold in the region. This idea meshed nicely with the views of some of his advisors, who had agendas of their own. It is now clear that Bush hardly gave a thought to actually following up the actual perpetrators, instead devoting his energies to drawing up plans to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran. He believed—and his advisors did nothing to discourage him— that these were easy targets, and regimes could be installed that would allow an extensive military and economic presence in the region.

All the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The money came from Saudi Arabia. Osama came from a powerful Saudi family. The terrorist training camps began in Saudi Arabia, and only moved to Afghanistan because of local rivalries. So why did Bush ignore Saudi Arabia totally? This has never been answered.

He did consult with some advisors, but other than Chalabi, who was interested in a role of power in Iraq, none of his advisors were from the Islamic world. Instead they came from the military, the oil companies, the lobbyists— in short, all of them eager to see an American military presence in the Middle East. He didn't even consult his own father, who after all had had some experience in this area.

When asked who he consulted, Bush said, "my Father", and pointed to the sky. What this means to me is instead of talking to people who had expertise, he talked to himself. This to me is a sign of mental illness.

But maybe it is me who is crazy. What do you think?
Comments:
My dad worked on the investigation into the barracks bombings many years back that happened in Saudi Arabia. After 9-11, he said it was funny how with the barracks, it took them years to collect the evidence and pinpoint who was behind it, but with 9-11 the investigators knew within a week...
 
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