Day of Days

There are those who believe that the United States government, and more pointedly the Bush Administration, not only was involved in September 11th, but that it was the instrumental mastermind behind the attacks. To be fair, I openly support healthy debate and conspiracy theory paranoia on controversial subjects, and there are still many unsolved questions concerning the attacks from the events leading up to them to the aftermath following. Let’s face it, though, Americans love a good conspiracy – especially if there’s even the merest possibility of truth to it.

However, the notion that the U.S. government masterminded the attacks – allowing thousands of innocent civilians to die – in order to ignite a Crusade-like war is inconceivable if not abhorrent. In the annals of lunacy, the theory ranks with the well-publicized belief that President Franklin Roosevelt let the Japanese practically obliterate the Pacific fleet on December 7, 1941 – allowing valuable military personnel and equipment to perish – as pretext for entering the Second World War. Both scenarios are ludicrous and make no sense, yet people still believe in them. Just goes to show that people will believe anything.

I prefer to reflect on September 11, 2001, in a different way. First, that al-Qaeda terrorists, provoked or otherwise yet nonetheless bent on the destruction of Western civilization, did the unimaginable and attacked the United States, and by proxy allied nations, on our soil. Second, that thousands of innocent persons – from civilian office workers to emergency responders – perished in both the initial attacks and the ensuing chaos that followed them. Third, that a generation of brave and honorable men and women answered the gauntlet tendered by those cowardly terrorists and continue even today to combat the evil they represent worldwide, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is how I care to remember that “day of days” – celebrating the unremitting triumph of the American spirit over barbarism, rather than the incessant questioning of the American endeavor inconsiderate of such barbarism.

©2009 Steve Sagarra