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Though the memories get dimmer with every passing year, 9/11 – at least for those alive on that day – will retain its horrible stature in the imagination forever. The story is now old, cinematised, novelised and set to music. Everyone alive knows the order of events, the reactions that followed them and – increasingly – the ‘reasoning’ used by those who set the nightmare in motion. But it was a truly universal event and one that has an enduring story to tell for all of us.
As it is the thing writers always relay before talking about the tragedy, I will briefly recount the circumstances of my own September the 11th.
I was at college while the towers stood burning. They had fallen by the time I returned home. I breezed into the house and headed straight upstairs to listen to music. Before I could get halfway up the stairs, my father shouted from the living room the memorable words – “Have you seen this?”
I went over into the living room and looked at the television. It was a scene of thrilling mayhem unlike anything I had ever seen. To be perfectly honest, I felt rather enlivened by it, childish as my sensibilities were at that point. Everywhere was drama, apocalypse, fire and smoke. People ran in screaming packs from a swelling cloud of dust chasing them over and between the gaps of buildings. Black suited men doused in white particles wandered around like zombies. It was all so strange, so otherworldly.
Every fifteen minutes or so the BBC coverage would feature a brief recap of the days events, including the – now familiar but at first bewildering – footage of the second plane melting into the concrete and glass of the south tower.
“Who did this?” I asked my parents, both of whom were now gathered.
“People from Afghanistan.” my father replied, having been informed by the red ticker running ceaselessly along the bottom of the screen.
“Could it mean war?” I asked, with cute naivety.
“Yes it could” he replied.
Tony Blair’s reaction was repeatedly broadcast, usually straight after the summary of events. He looked tearfully angry and pledged every effort and skill Britain could offer to the United States. Looking back, it was probably a good thing that he was in charge on that day. Despite his numberless infirmities, he eloquently captured the popular reaction and fulfilled rather well the duties of the UK/US brotherhood – a brotherhood that had just become sacred.
After 9/11 I tended to align with the anti-war, anti-American, anti-Israel crowd. I reasoned that since the Middle East had been bombed for decades, attacks the other way were practically inevitable. It only later occurred to me that bombs are dropped for both moral and immoral reasons; that the bombs dropped to protect Kuwait from Saddam, for example, or to protect the Kurds from genocide, or to liberate Europe from Germany and Asia from Japan were moral bombs; imperfect implements of a perfect goodwill, and that, by perfect contrast, the kerosene missiles fired at New York and Washington were tools of malevolence; a massive and important distinction, and one which the Left seems determined to ignore.
Truth be told, I will never forgive Islam for 9/11. I will never forgive it for spoiling the liberalising trend of the nineties and providing in its place an age of war, suspicion and hatred. It ruined more than buildings. It wrecked the dreams of a peaceful, enlightened cosmopolis, a globalised America. Without its handiwork, we could have gone down a very different, much prettier road. Before the Islamic zombie returned, racism, homophobia, xenophobia and religious intolerance were beginning to crumble. They were no longer fashionable. We were beginning to find modern solutions to ancient problems. Then, with one psychotic gesture, we were thrust back into the darkest throes of history.
Never forget. Never forgive.
D, LDN
Another thought provoking post.
Thank you.
The greatest fight of ours and the next’s and probably the next to next’s generation will be the fight against a re-energized Islam. All means should be employed in this fight, with the military option being the last but not the least option. We should also remember that this fight is an ideological struggle and should be fought as such, in the realm of ideas. Also, we should fight with a sense of righteousness and confidence and most importantly with optimism. It will be the defining fight of this century and WE WILL WIN THIS STRUGGLE and ISLAM WILL BE DEFEATED.
I was confident we were winning until this refugee stuff started. The birth-rate in North Africa and the Middle East is lowering (slowly but surely) and the European rate is slowly rising. I didn’t think whole nations would just empty themselves on us. Syria, Kurdistan and Libya today, who knows what tomorrow. It’s become a straightforward invasion.
Control of immigration & ‘Asylum’ seekers is also part of the fight.
To change the minds of our Leftist or Left-influenced cultural-relativist politicians & media is part of the struggle.?
Why doesn’t the oil-rich Gulf Co-Operation council take in ANY of their fellow Muslim Arabs as refugees. Why no mainstream Wester politician or Media personality is asking this question? Why should European nations give up their unique identity & culture while the Gulf nations preserve their own?
I think the most important component of this struggle is the struggle against Leftist ideology within Europe, which is enabling this refugee influx. Look where the Uber-Leftist Jeremy Corbyn went as soon as he became the Labour leader!
The Gulf can buy its way out of anything. Western governments (especially cash-strapped EU governments) see the Gulf as a giant cash-cow.
You are correct with respect to the oil enriched filth of the gulf. Humanism is not in their DNA. On the other hand, I can’t wait until you write a truly excoriating critique of this “humanist” Jeremy Corbyn numbskull, who fancies himself “a citizen of the world”.
He wouldn’t even sing the national anthem today. It was at a service to remember WW2 pilots.
So was Jeremy Corbyn feeling a bit peeved that Nazism (National Socialism) had not won, or really that Russia did not sweep on past Berlin and across the Channel too.
After all there was a lot of active support in Germany, Italy, and France for socialist/communist parties.,and the American armies were to be just a temporary military bulwark to this.
Was he unhappy that Churchill did see through Stalin for not honouring the Central Europe agreements, and thought of the possibility Allies continue at least through Eastern Europe if not all the way to Moscow.
It all turned from offensive scenario in 1945 to a defensive setup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable
and then the economics of the Marshall Plan of 1948 began that bore fruit, and stabilized Western Europe.
A interesting history /politics and points of view of the Marshall plan.
I would guess that Corbyn mourns the decline of the Soviet Union very deeply.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
sorry; forgot to include that link for that quote in my comment above.,,, and following quote;.
plus,ex US President Herbert Hoover in 1947 said;-
Morgenthau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Morgenthau
was another interesting character that had a lot of influence off and on through the 20th century and even being translated and studied this century.
Interesting to read up bit of of those times, though disparate now, there are some similarities in desperation and numbers of peoples and countries.
“imperfect implements of a perfect goodwill, and that, by perfect contrast, the kerosene missiles fired at New York and Washington were tools of malevolence; a massive and important distinction, and one which the Left seems determined to ignore.” DtMW
Great thoughts of looking for peace, in also looking at Morgenthau and Marshall, and despite looking also at revisionist history, it is the reasoning, trying and doing to get even maybe an “imperfect implements of a perfect goodwill” outcome then may be to change, adjust and tweak it for the better.
Thank you for your writings, as they prove stimulating for me to look and learn more,; consolidate some of my rambling, ranting thoughts, and so also espouse more succinctly and confidently to others as well on those “concerning issues”.
May we be wiser for the experience and study;- And so life goes on, and is to be lived and made the most of through out all these interesting times.
Disgusting. I’m sure he would have sung The International with no hesitation. And loudly as well.
He did sing ‘The Red Flag’ last week at another event – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Flag
This video of Frau Merkel is unbelievable, in how she answers the reporter;s questions regarding responsibilities to protect citizens in Europe
10minutes 56 seconds
She does not explain why she wants 800,000 refugees, but between the lines she looks old senile, looking for a legacy and that for me is why this happening, and probably also explains some of the refugee slippage happening for the past 2+ years, if not earlier.
Ezra Levant does give some commentary on Merkel
An Immanuel Kant way of thinking/morals of “Just do it” “Thinking is bad even if you do it, as then it will be corrupted”. Is that why all those people coming out with welcome signs?,
Are there any suitable people in Germany that can guide her to a zimmerman frame/trundler and then take over, and pull back on the reins, and that goes for many European countries and to follow through.
It does seem like a world wide western civilization problem as the voters go down that track of non thinking.
Still more than hope, may the small things, informing,, debating,, educating… turn enough people and inspire them to do more. Pediga is at least a start too.
Thank you DtMW
whoops, the above.
sorry I put in the wrong post. Should be in “Germany Bites the Cyanide Capsule”
If not too much problem, are you able to shift to there? and delete here.
It is a shock to me to realize that a leader can really say those things, and as I take it now, with the full backing of her government, as it is more than a week or so ago. Why am I so naive? to expect the “man from the government and I am here to help you” to be like a Dr. “to do no harm in all his treatments”.
You are so right “Merkel’s humanitarianism, just like her economics, is hopelessly warped”.
As regards September 11: I think *the* best thing to do on the anniversary is to reread Oriana Fallaci’s magnificent diatribe, “La rabbia e l’orgoglio”/ “The Rage and the Pride”. She wrote it at white heat in the days immediately following the attack..which she witnessed, for she was living in NYC at the time. It is a paean of passionate affirmation of the Best of the West (indeed, the Best of Infidel Humanity); it is also a great cry of warning, a call to awareness and to arms. Read it aloud. Let it sing. Let it set your soul on fire. Indeed: it would be worth taking a group of friends to the 9/11 memorial garden in London – either at dawn or at sunset – with a bottle of wine. Read it. All of it. Aloud. Then pass around the bottle, and drink a series of toasts – to the author, to civilisation, to the memory of the blessed dead, and …to victory. What’s also worth reading – her sequel – “La Forza della Ragione” – The Force of Reason. She takes as its epigraph a bon mot attributed to Pericles – “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.”
Further thoughts on September 11. Some years ago, I was poking around on the internet and found a few places where you can read about the people who were murdered. The people on the planes, in the buildings. Their nationalities (and, among those who held US citizenship at the time of their deaths, it’s often possible to discern the cultural mix that makes up both the older and the newer America – for example, among the firemen and policemen who were killed as they responded to the emergency, one notices at once all the surnames that hail from Italy, and from Ireland, bespeaking earlier European immigrations; and the *fact* of their being firemen, and policemen, tells you something about their families and their culture).
What also struck me is that when you start looking at the numbers of people among the 9/11 victims who were from outside the US, you can almost ‘map’ modern America’s relationships (and historic cultural relationships) – e.g. the single biggest cluster of non-US victims were 63 UK citizens (there is a memorial garden for them in NYC now), then there were 41 Indians (that is, citizens of India; plenty of recognisably Hindu or Sikh Indian surnames among the American citizens who were killed); 24 Canadians, 28 South Koreans, 24 Japanese, 16 Jamaicans, 16 Filipinos, 11 Israelis, 11 Australians…7 Colombians. 11 Germans. The World Trade Centre really *was* a World Trade Centre. When bin Laden attacked it he didn’t just attack *America* – he was attacking a symbol of *the entire Infidel world* because there were people from the entire Infidel world working there…from the hotshot young and not-so-young execs, all the way down to the lowliest janitor/ kitchen staff…and when I looked up some of the biographies, even the lowliest workers were *so* pleased to be working in that awesome building. One of the dead in the twin towers was a young Chinese-American girl who’d done well in college, and got a job in a high-flying firm; she was the daughter of classic hardscrabble immigrants who had worked their tails off to pay for their American-born daughter’s education. And then they lost their bright and shining star.. snuffed out along with thousands of others by the bastard mohammedans who hate women, and education, and freedom. One of the Canadians who was killed was…a Coptic Christian immigrant from Egypt. He’d gotten away from the misery of being a Christian in Egypt, migrated to freedom in the West; had brought out from Egypt another Copt, his young wife…they were devout churchgoers, really nice people, he had worked hard, got a good job (hence his being in an office in the Twin Towers)…his wife was only a month pregnant, when he was killed in the 9/11 attack (incidentally, of the 24 Canadians who were killed, 4 left wives who were pregnant at the time of the attack). Murderous civilisation-killing Islam followed him all the way to America.
The headline of the Daily Mirror (on Sept. 12th) was ‘War on the World’. I remember thinking it was a bit of an exaggeration. It was actually very appropriate.
Two other things that have struck me, when thinking about it. First: the targets. Bin Laden attacked the Towers that symbolised not only Infidel wealth and intellect but also their engineering skill, their *art* (and one must bear in mind that at that time it *was* the tallest building in the world; in Muslim countries, it was always the rule that no Infidel was allowed to build higher than a Muslim; it’s not a coincidence that hideous Dubai built the Burja, so that the Muslims could claim the World’s Tallest Building, after the Twin Towers were destroyed; so among other things, the attack was sheer spite, like a nasty child knocking down another child’s sandcastle because it is higher and nicer than his own). He attacked the Pentagon, symbol of infidel military might. He was able to totally destroy the Towers; he didn’t succeed in entirely obliterating the Pentagon (it being more sturdily built than the Towers). And he was also – the third plane – aiming for either the White House or, more likely, the Capitol. The symbol of Infidel government and law. And *that* target he wasn’t able to take. Not at all. Because first of all, a vigilant bloke with a Spanish surname got a bad feeling, trusted his instincts, and turned back a truly sinister Saudi at the gate…a Saudi who would otherwise have been on that third plane. And that meant that the passengers on that plane, who fought back, had at least a chance to fight…having fewer hijackers to tackle. And that’s the second point – that the passengers did fight. They died; but because they fought, the plane crashed before reaching its intended target. Bin Laden got the Towers on 9/11, he wounded the Pentagon…but the Capitol, that gritty, grubby symbol of modern infidel government, survived unscathed, saved…most likely by the extraordinary courage of a bunch of ordinary citizens. Perhaps that’s an omen or sign for us all.
And the other thing is about the towers themselves. The conspiracy theorists, the so-called Truthers, have got entirely the wrong end of the stick. The truly astonishing thing, for engineers – and in internet discussions when the subject of the destruction of the Twin Towers comes up, I have seen two different self-identifying engineers make this point, with great solemnity (and outright fury) – is not that the Towers fell so fast after they were hit. The engineers **are amazed that they stood so long as they did**, after taking such mortal blows. Here’s one guy, who was getting stuck into a conspiracy theorist: “**The only thing we need to wonder about, is how did those buildings take that kind of blow and stay standing that long afterwards?
That is what engineers marvelled at.**
But you idiots marvel that they collapsed.
D’oh!” And here’s the other engineer, in a different discussion, years later. “As a structural engineer let me tell you, it is perfectly plausible that a jet brought down such a massive building.
“Aircraft fuel burns at a staggering 1000degress c. Mild steel with a yield strength of approx. 250 MPa begins to drastically loose strength at approx. 700-800 degrees c. coupled with the fact it was exposed to such temperatures for an extended time, coupled with the fact it is a steel framed structure that lost a significant amount of structural integrity once a massive jet plowed away probably 70% of its columns 2/3 way up the building = disaster.
**In fact im surprised the building even lasted as long as it did**.”
Let’s hear those words again. When I read them they send chills down my spine.
*The only thing we need to wonder about, is how did those buildings take that kind of blow and stay standing that long afterwards?
That is what engineers marvelled at.**
**In fact I’m surprised the building even lasted as long as it did**.”
Think about it. Think about it, next time you watch old footage of the attacks, the towers burning, still standing, before they fall. Start counting the seconds that they stand, *before falling*, after the planes hit. Think about the army of people who created those buildings; who forged the steel, mixed and poured the concrete, put in the rivets, put it all together, back in the 1960s. They are the unsung heroes of 9/11. Because they did a damn good job. They did their job well enough – even despite the inherent vulnerabilities of the building design – that those towers took two massive, mortal body blows…and …remained standing…longer than any engineer would think possible. Long enough – just long enough for thousands of people to evacuate, to get out of danger. Yes, those above the strike zone were doomed, but below…people poured out of those buildings like a river. Every *second* those buildings stood, was a life that could have ended, but didn’t; time enough for someone to flee down a staircase, a fire escape, and get away.
I remember reading ‘The New Pearl Harbor’ just after it was published. I found it to be rip-roaring work of speculative fiction. I’m embarrassed to say some of my friends saw (and some still see it) as a work of non-fiction.
People who deny the ‘official story’ of 9/11 are almost always crackpots in other ways.