It seems like ten seconds, not ten years, have passed since our nation was attacked on September, 11, 2001. The horrific images of that fateful day (the plane smashing into the iconic skyscraper, people jumping to their death from the towering inferno, the collapse of both towers) haven’t been dimmed by time, they remain sharp and clear in our minds.

Where there was once smoldering ruins at Ground Zero, there is now a National September 11 Memorial, and the new Freedom Tower has begun its ascent to the heavens. Violence and hatred has never quashed the human spirit, and that hallowed ground on lower Manhattan will soon be bolder, and more magnificent than ever.

“Closure” is a cruel myth, the families of the victims of 9/11 will carry their emotional scars to their graves. But Americans are resilient, and many of those most impacted by 9/11 made a U Turn after that evil day and dedicated the rest of their lives in service to their communities.

It’s often repeated that the terrorists won because in the aftermath of 9/11, we got entangled in two interminable wars, spent billions on security measures, and passed the Patriot Act which tramples on our civil liberties.

While it’s true that going to war against Iraq was a colossal mistake, and we should have pulled our troops out of Afghanistan years ago, al Qaeda didn’t win. We emerged from the fires of 9/11, a stronger and more unified nation. We learned that the strength of our nation isn’t in its towers that touch the heavens, but in the indomitable spirit of the American people.

The terrorists will never win, terrorism will never destroy us. Only we can destroy ourselves, if we fail to realize that we are still one people, indivisible. In the days and weeks immediately following 9/11 we weren’t blue states and red states, but the UNITED States of American. Today bipartisanship is a dirty word in Congress, and we have let our political differences divide us.

Let’s come together as a nation once again. Instead of letting politics divide us, let us celebrate the wonderful freedom that we enjoy to express our political views. Nothing will enrage and confuse our enemies more than witnessing an America that is unbowed, united and undeterred from advancing the cause of liberty.

By Robert Paul Reyes

Follow Robert Paul Reyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertpaulreyes

President Obama Attends 9/11 Memorial Service in NYC

President Obama Attends 9/11 Memorial Service at the Pentagon

Weekly Address: President Calls For Unity On 9/11 Anniversary

   Columnist – John Sammon
The 10-year anniversary of 9-11 will include memorializing and flag-waving on television networks under the motto “We Won’t Forget,” but will not include any mention of our attack on Iraq in a false attempt to link that country to 9-11.

We choose to forget that part.

No mention will be made of the approximate million Iraqis killed in a war started by George Bush and Dick Cheney, who lied us into a war by claiming that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was involved in 9-11. Bush later openly admitted they weren’t.

He has never faced justice for these deceptions.

Apparently, what Americans choose to remember in the 9-11 tragedy through the media is selective.

The fanatics who did 9-11, mostly Saudi Arabians, came from a country with which we have the friendliest of relations. Let’s say for argument’s sake these nuts attacked us and will do so in the future for no other reason than they don’t like us because we are primarily a Christian country.

That still doesn’t change the fact that we attacked Iraq because we didn’t like its leader, and killed a million people not to mention the lives of U.S. soldiers lost because we falsely tried to tie Iraq to 9-11. The perpetrators of this misdeed remain unpunished, even glorified.

The observances of 9-11 will also include no objective assessment of our role in the Middle East in past history, and how it has helped to de-stabilize the region and give impetus to extremists. Let me give some specific examples of the history Americans choose to forget, or are totally unaware of.

Let’s take Iran. The United State backed the former Shah of Iran, a brutal dictator who had secret police forces imprisoning and murdering Iranians. Backing by the U.S. fueled hatred of the U.S. in that country and gave unwitting help to extremists under the Ayatollah Khomeini, which led to the taking of American hostages at the embassy there and the current hostile, authoritarian regime.

Our behavior in the Middle East has been less than wise.

How about Egypt? We supported Hosni Mubarak, a ruthless dictator now facing court trial, virtually right up until the time he was overthrown by a popular people’s street movement.

What about Saddam? We supplied equipped and encouraged him guaranteeing him we wouldn’t let him lose a war with Iran. Former Bush Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld posed for a famous picture shaking Saddam’s hand in his palace.

We choose to forget that.

We gave at least voiced support to rebel units fighting the Russians in Afghanistan during the last of the Cold War who later became the Taliban.

We choose to forget that too.

The list goes on and on.

Bush and Cheney approved the torture of prisoners and threw out the rules of the Geneva Convention, instituted a gulag of camps in which prisoners had no recourse to an attorney, and instituted illegal wiretap spying on American citizens that violated The Bill of Rights under the guise of making us safer and which was ludicrously and perversely called “The Patriot Act.”

We’ll also forget that.

Rather than acting as a peace broker in the Middle East, which occasionally we have, for example, the attempted Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt, we have pretty much given Israel a blank check to do whatever it wanted. This included pushing Palestinians out of ancestral homelands and building settlements which has heightened tensions.

Our memorializing of 9-11 will not include an overall objective assessment of this history as a whole. The idea conveyed will be that the U.S., innocent of ever doing anything unwise, was picked on for no reason by evil people.

There is some truth to this. But that is a stilted viewpoint.

What terrorists did on 9-11 is evil. They are fanatics. The heroism of responders to the tragedy and the loss and sacrifice should be remembered and honored.

But to selectively choose to remember only what we want to or to “cherry pick” history so that a one-sided viewpoint (good guys versus evil fanatics) is presented does no one any good. History is not a vacuum, or wearing blinders, but a long catalog of events, often decisions errantly made.

Our history of involvement in the Middle East has not always been wise. That will not be discussed during the remembrances of 9-11. This website, Politicalarticles.net, allows me to say this. Other websites will not and would censor what you are reading here because they are afraid or angry with ideas with which they don’t agree.

There is nothing unpatriotic about the truth, or criticizing the government of this country for its past mistakes in a volatile region. It is not unpatriotic to disagree in a so-called “Free” country.

Reference: Contradictions and Hypocrisy Haunt U.S. Policy in the Middle East

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MMFA: In the wake of President Obama’s announcement that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan, Media Matters looks back at conservative media who attacked Obama’s commitment to fighting terrorism. Since his election in 2008, right-wing media figures have repeatedly suggested that Obama is weak on terror and that he is not serious about defending America from terrorism threats.

FLASHBACK: Right-Wing Attacks on Obama’s Pakistan Terrorism Policy

Elsewhere, conservative media outlets and personalities have declared that the death of the world’s most famous terrorist was just another opportunity for the president to “strut like [a] peacock” and make it all about himself. [ READ MORE ]
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CLASSIC FOX ANTI-OBAMA BIAS: Fox’s Napolitano Wonders If Gov’t. Is “Telling The Truth” About Bin Laden Or “Pulling A Fast One To Save Obama’s Lousy Presidency“

And, they are trying their darn hardest to heap ALL credit on Bush at the expense of Obama. Bush, a criminal who should face judgement at the ICC for crimes against humanity, may deserve some credit, — which is totally negated by the criminal killings he caused in Iraq.

This has not stopped Republicans, who are leaving Obama out altogether in the “credit game” — instead piling it all on Bush, and using Bin Laden’s death to justify Bush’s criminal waterboarding and Gitmo detentions. Some who gathered Sunday night outside of the Dallas-area community where Bush lives with his wife Laura, apparently had a similar thought: They posted a sign on the gate that read, “Obama forgot to say…THANK YOU, PRESIDENT BUSH.”

President Obama deserves FULL credit for capturing and killing Bin Laden, in any case his presidency has been hopelessly bogged down by results of the destructive policies of Bush’s arrogant and imbecilic eight year regime of theft and racist graft.

In killing Osama Bin Laden, Obama has demonstrated clear and decisive leadership, unlike Bush who failed to do so at Tora Bora and then claimed Bin Laden wasn’t a priority.

“I truly am not that concerned about him,” Bush said at a White House press conference on March 13, 2002. And of course the following March, he shifted America’s focus to Iraq, which proved to be a gigantic diversion.

Obama has “accomplished the mission,” unlike Bush who stupidly hang a huge banner on an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (after landing on it dressed in a pilot’s combat uniform [ which he never wore in battle ]) claiming “mission accomplished,” only to see Iraq explode into beastly violence.

Unlike Bush, Obama avoided stupid Texas-Cowboy chants like “bring ‘em on!,” instead the president has at all times exuded “dignified restraint,” in directing the manhunt which finally brought Bin Laden to justice. Obama has been in charge all along, while Bush “cowboy bamboozled” a bloodthirsty right-wing America.

As Dan Froomkin of The Huffington Post notes — Obama succeeded where bush failed, again and again.

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One Fox station announced Bin Laden’s death as follows — “Reports: Obama Bin Laden Dead”
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Tells you in a nutshell what these racist goons think about the first black president of the United States!

HATE-MONGER Rush Limbaugh Laughs At Media Who Report That He Lavished Praise On Obama Over Bin Laden Killing

Fox Business’ Napolitano Asks Guest: “Do You Believe” Bin Laden Is “Dead, Or Do You Want Some More Evidence?”

HATEMONGER Rush Limbaugh Claims Obama Took Credit For “Single-Handed[ly] … Securing The Death Of Osama Bin Laden”

Limbaugh: If Obama Were A Shoo-In For Re-Election “Osama Bin Laden Would Still Be Alive Today”

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Owned by “semi-senile” billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and operated by Roger ‘FAT‘ Ailes — Fox News Channel wraps itself in slogans of journalistic objectivity like “Fair and balanced” and “We report, you decide,” but ample evidence conclusively indicate a race-baiting, terroristic, right-wing tilt in the network’s ‘news.’

Over a decade, Roger Ailes has shaped Fox in his image — an image modeled on Ailes’ history of race-baiting, racism and extortionism. To complete the vicious machine, Ailes has incorporated the Republican party — making Fox the official mouthpiece of the ‘Grand Old Party‘ — including the militant terrorist wing of the party, the new white power movement — the cocksucking, “tea-bagging” tea-partiers.

Fox has played a thoroughly unethical, in fact terroristic role in American politics — from Obama’s election in 2008 and into the 2010 mid-term elections — enabling the G.O.P to take over numerous state legislatures previously controlled by Democrats — in a relatively low-turnout(non-presidential) election year.

The takeover has emboldened the GOP — and they are on a rampage — re-entrenching racist policies — until they are stopped in 2012, hopefully.

The hanging mentality is back in full force, and is stinking America from top to bottom.

Thanks to Fox!

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Boehlert on MSNBC’s Cenk: Fox News Is “A Dangerous Combination Of Incompetence And Bias“

Boehlert On MSNBC’s The Ed Show: Huckabee “Ran To Bill O’Reilly And Fox News” To “Play Damage Control“

Schultz: Huckabee “Failed Miserably” In Trying To Shake The “Taint” From His Kenya Comments

Osama Bin O’Reilly Defends Huckabee’s “Valid Point” About Obama’s World View

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The Fast Fix — Good Newt, Bad Newt [ READ: 'COCKAMAMIE' SCAM-ARTIST -- NEWTON LEROY GINGRICH, ROLLS OUT PRESIDENTIAL BID AS MIKE HUCKABEE PLAYS OBAMA 'MADRASSA' CARD TO REPUBLICAN BIGOTS ]
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References:
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•  Tea Party Racists and the Lynching of President Obama

•  The Last Gasp of Aging White Power: But Time Is Not on Your Side

•  The ‘White American Brain’ Finally Goes Haywire in Spectacular Fashion

•  The Coming Obama Reich: 10 Things That Terrify Right-Wingers

•  What The Tea Partiers Really Want: A Whites ONLY Country …’Dang It!’

•  The Right’s Search For a Black Racist.

•  Fear of An Intelligent Black Man — White Intimidation By Black Male Intelligence Still Exists To This Day

•  Republicans and the Art of Racism: Obama is Dealing With an Aggressive Covert and Fascist Operation in Congress, in The Media and On The Streets

•  Rise of The ‘Angry White Male’: Desperate & Insecure Whites See Years of Unfettered Privilege Slipping Away

•  The Tea-Bag “Terrorist” Suckers Are The New “White Power Movement“

•  Disguising Hate as Heritage: The Neo-Confederate Tradition Of Refighting The Civil War

•  An Anatomy of Projected Racism

•  Images of Right-Wing Republican Terrorism in America

•  Living Under Obama: White Male ‘Conservative’ Victimhood and The New Realities of ‘Black Privilege’

•  The Pathology of White Privilege: What If The Tea Party ‘Tea-Baggers’ Were Black?

•  The ‘Destroy Obama’ Game Plan: A Single-Minded and Vicious Enemy Stalks The Democratic President

•  On Negrophobia: Psychoneurotic Obstacles to Black Autonomy (or Why I just love Michael Jackson)

•  The Politics of Mosques and Qurans Show America Tto Be in The Worst Spasm of Paranoia and Bigotry Since The Cold War.

•  Fanning Fears of Muslims Has Never Made Better — Or More Cynical — Political Sense. — Until the advent of the Obama presidency, Republicans had no reason to scapegoat Muslimsor demonize Islam — and indeed, they could not have inflamed those prejudices without damaging their own leaders, especially George W. Bush. The political and cultural messaging that Republicans and conservatives accepted quietly from Bush is today considered tantamount to treason when promoted by Obama.

•  The Great ‘Tea-Party’ Fear: Pollution of The White ‘Stock’ — The Strange Sexual Obsessions Driving the Tea Party Movement: The great white fear of interracial “pollution” has found its most acute expression with Obama as president. He is the offspring of not simply an interracial relationship, but an international coupling as well. He is the child of 21st century globalization, the symbolic representation of a hope for a world without borders, without race prejudice, without white privilege. — [ READ MORE ]

•  America Just Can’t Deal With Reality Any More.

•  The Real ‘Un-Americans’ and Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘Summa Idiotica’.

•  White Civil-War: The Intra-Racial Struggle Over America’s National Identity and Belonging.

•  NAACP Report Ties Tea Party to Militia and Racist Republican Groups; Tea-Bagger Group Calls Obama ‘Angel of Death’.

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Republicans are equating the Quran book burning to building a mosque in Manhattan. “Pastor” Terry Jones’ Quran-threatening circus shows that the enemy of American democracy isn’t just foreign terrorists, but also homegrown idiots turning U.S. policy into reality TV. How does a fringe preacher go from 50 congregants to the front page of 50 newspapers overnight? [ READ MORE ]

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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