September 11 - Four Years Later

Today is the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. in the US. The US will take this Sunday to commemorate those events (http://estadis.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/coberturas_est/esp834.html) in the middle of rescue operations in New Orleans and in the middle of a war against the insurgents in Irak.

In spite of reflections triggered by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, the US continues - four years later- to not reflect on the true causes and reasons of why the events of September 11 happened. Even when with Katrina the US reflects on logistics of evacuations and how to react to disasters, I doubt that they will reflect and evaluate that if four years later they have become a more secure society that is less vulnerable to terrrorism.

This, I believe, is because the US government has done a great job to convince its people that the terrorists hate them for being "free" & "democratic and that they also hate all of the good things the US stands for. This is the same tactic that Tony Blair has used after the terrorist attacks in London. Nevertheless, Al Qaeda has said in many ocassions that they do not hate freedom, nor do they hate "The American Way of Life". What they hate is that because of US economical (and military) interests, there are US troops in the Middle East and holy Islamic land. And of course, there is also a resentment on the US's policy towards Israel.

But no one (except for the independent & intelligent people of the US) wants to think about that. A lot of people of the US are not aware that though they aren't the ones committing these "atrocities" against Islam, by virtue of their beloved democracy they voted in a goverment that does commit those "atrocities". Not only that, but they passively lack the will to demand a change because they infer that changing means that "the terrorists win".

And what is worst is that by adopting to take the "War on Terrorism" to the homes of terrorists, they continue to ignore the true birthplaces of terrorism. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are ignored and even seen as allies while Irak was added to the list and vilified. Sure, US troops die in Irak but they die fighting terrorists that weren't there before the US invaded.

On the up side, four years after September 11, the US has not suffered another terrorist attack on their land. But lets think about this another way. If the US is coming to you, why go to the US? I believe that in this logic lies the reason of why terrorist efforts have been somewhat concentrated on Irak. And lets not forget London. London taught us that terrorists are still very patient in their plans. No attacks does not mean there are no plans agains the US mainland.

In conclusion, I believe the US is not safer today than four years ago and I can only hope people will reflect on this and create conscience so that they can attempt to participate in world society in a fairer way.