For every innocent American killed by the Al-Qaeda on 9/11 Americans killed 38 innocent Iraqis in revenge. That’s “an eye for an eye” on steroids.
But worse than that is that the people we took revenge on WEREN’T EVEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE 9/11 KILLINGS.
So let’s recap how Americans do things:
Al-Qaeda bombs the twin towers and kills 2,996 people on American soil.
Our axis-of-evil president Bush and his cronies tell lies so we can declare war on Iraq to “fight terrorism”. But Iraq, as anyone with half a brain paying attention knew at the time, wasn’t responsible for the 9/11 attacks because Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for them. Specifically, Bin Laden claimed it.
So we ignore that super key fact and proceed to kill between 114,407 and 125,381 unarmed non-combatant Iraqi CIVILIANS because we’re so mad and so sad and someone has to pay for what Bin Laden did and frankly, we don’t care who pays as long as they are generally somewhat darker skinned and muslim.
On terms we can all understand, this is like if your next door neighbor kills your cat for pooping in their yard and instead of dealing with your neighbor within the limits of the law you kill everyone in a random family that lives a few streets down because they vaguely remind you of your next door neighbor and are so easy to massacre.
Is that something you would do? Is that something your moral code approves of? Mine doesn’t.
Every year I write about this on 9/11 because every year I hear everyone in social media and mainstream media and friends and neighbors “remembering” 9/11 with sad nostalgia. And it makes me sick because even now almost none of them ever simultaneously remember the innocent people we made pay for Bin Laden’s crime.
Yes, the Americans we lost on 9/11 matter and are worth remembering.
But those Americans aren’t 38 times more worthy of remembrance than the people we murdered in their name.
No American is worth the senseless cruel slaughter of 114,407 innocent people.
I am still ashamed of my country and countrymen after all these years.
We have a major crime against humanity to pay for.
Since the average American refuses to acknowledge the slaughter of innocent lives we’re responsible for – I will continue to remember them.
To those Iraqi families who have lost so many loved ones over the last 12 years I can only say that not every American holds your lives cheap. Today I am thinking of your heartache, your upheaval, your displacement, and cherished people my country took from you. I’m deeply sorry for your losses. Today I am remembering your dead.