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| 9/11 - Ten years after September 1st, 2011, Kansas City - The sad follow up on a terrible incident. |
| Ten years ago, the World was shaken by the news. Planes crashed into the WTC, another plane went down on an acre in Pennsylvania and a fourth one hit the Pentagon. People died, one of the tallest buildings in the world collapsed and buried their remains. It was a sad day for all the world, but America had to carry the brunt of the impact. I wasn't then in the US, in fact, I wasn't even thinking of moving to the US back then. I lived in Germany. But I had friends in the US, in fact so many, that critics from the left sometimes accused me of "pro-Americanism". And it took days to find out, what happened to them. Some, I could reach, alive. Others are gone. It wasn't that I could sit in a plane and go look for them. The American air space was sealed back then. And phone lines were a question of luck because a lot of people wanted to know how friends in America were. So, like a lot of people in Europe, I watched the endless repeats in the news, always hoping to see somewhere some of my frineds alive. In one case, I got lucky, the person knows, who I mean. The pictures that were burnt in my brain day were from news reports. And they are all connected inseperatable. The falling towers, but also the dancing Hamas sympathizers on the streets of Ghaza. The crashsite in Pennsylvania but also the triumphant Osama bin Laden in his first video after. And even more, I will not forget the weeks after. When the first conspiracy theories came up. Of course, most of the "evidence" was faked, but who cares when there is money or another form of gain in it? And I will remember the boards, I was on than, back in Germany, but also US boards. Admittedly, the internet allowed me some kind of transatlantic lifestyle. However, that isn't the story, I wanted to tell. The real story, the real shocker, was, what people wrote. There was a lot of hate form the German left, not against the murderers, oh no, but against America. And always, when I objected and hinted out the point, America was the attacked, I was accused of "pro-Americanism" or, as an editor once put it "a lack of fashionable anti-Americanism". Now, we all know, fate goes strange ways. I met a lady, an aspiring writer in America. We talked, I visited her, I visited her more, I visited her often enough, that the crews of the planes knew me by name and how I like my coffee. And at some point, I moved to America and married her. Yes, I'm a legal immigrant. Lets put that subject back for next month's article. Well, one should think, a writer, being accused for years of "pro-Americanism" should be right at home in the US. | And yes, I like it in the US. Most people, I met were friendly and also the educational level wasn't half as bad as those Americans wanted to make me believe. They hurt us, but obviously, they didn't defeat usAnd Americans take things for granted, that make me still open my eyes in surprise. The Americans were different from what I expected, but they weren't better or worse than that expectation, just different. But for sure, they were better than they believed themselves. However, that was years ago. In the meantime, America changed. Americans fight Americans over political ideologies, conspiracy nutjobs are now on American boards, Yahoo deletes all comments which have nothing to do with government praise or Jew hating while the party that puts up the government claims to be the defender of freedom and, for the first time in history, America has gone to war without any form of Congressional approval. America has changed. Today, if you say, a politician made a mathematical error, you are a racist. Some years ago, you were called for that a mathemtician. What has that to do with 9/11? More than it appears on the first glance. 9/11, despite all sadness, was a uniting experience between Americans and also those, who were friends to America and Americans. Of course, it produced also a lot of big words, but hey, the situation was emotional, nobody can seriously doubt that factor. But whenever a great nation, a strong nation, unites, there are those not far, who try to profit from it. Politicians, activists for anything, or simply business men seeing a chance. In a way, it was inevitable because there is always someone thinking, he is smarter than you and me. But here is the rub: 9/11 was an attack on America. But in our all grief and, not unjustified, asking the question by what America may have deserved the attack, we became vulnerable. The wish to be loved by the world is understandable and politicians in the aftermath of 9/11 preyed on | that wish more than enough. But there is a simple truth hidden behind, taught to us by history: Never ever was the strongest nation loved. They were popular when there was trouble to protect the weaker ones. They were popular when disaster stroke. They were popular as ally. But when there was no impending war, the big brother had to win for someone else, when there was no disaster and when there was no threat from the neighbor, the biggest fish in the pond was always seen with envy and therefore disgust. Nobody likes someone who is the better in all things because he is free and tough at the same time. To be loved, we have to become weak. Alone the expressed wish to be loved is seen by other nations as a sign of weakness. We can talk around that, disguise it in terms of political correctness, but there it is! The real question, 9/11 puts before us, is simple: Do we want to be strong, then we shouldn't care too much about the afore mentioned envy. Or do we want to be weak, hide in the middle of the pack? Which inherently would bring other problems with it, because we would be in a weaker position to protect our interests too. The answer to that question is more essential than it may appears. It will define every economical, social, political and military decision, the US will make in the next 8-12 years. Because we can't have both. To be strong means to be doomed to show that strength. To be weak means to back off, even the demands from the other side are maybe not reasonable. So, America, ten years after 9/11, we're on a crossroad. And honestly, I can't see politicians see that problem for us, currently neither Democrats nor Republicans and for sure not so-called independents selling their votes as fifth column to the Democrats. If you believe in change, then change, but don't believe a career politician will do it for you, regardless what he promises. 9/11, the attack that disbalanced America, is American history, it doesn't belong exclusively in the hands of political vote catchers. Because the people, who died on 9/11, they were none of those. And now, after the death of Osama bin Laden. once more, there will be hundreds telling you, 9/11 is ancient history since it doesn't fit their agendas anymore. And there will be again hundreds, who will tell you, it was all only a bad conspiracy, it was an inside job, America did it to herself and all the rest of the propaganda. They will come out of their holes everywhere. And then, it's the time to remember, why 9/11 changed the world and that the really important question is still not answered. |
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