Will 9/11 Observances Remember Iraqi Civilians Killed in Misguided U.S. Response?
I wrote this post last September 11th, but don't see any change in the American understanding of this tragedy's true dimensions.
If only I could confine the wound in my heart to the 2, 988 men, women and children who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. But unfortunately, my emotions don't work that way. They refuse to be switched on or off depending on whose flag is draped over the victim's coffin.
U.S. Army field reports record that 66,081 Iraqi civilian deaths between January 2004 to December 2009 are attributable to the U.S. invasion of their country. This war of vengeance, launched to perk up American spirits after 9/11 has cost this country $3 trillion, according to a September 5, 2010 article in the Washington Post, and sent the U.S. economy into a downward spiral, from which it has still not recovered. The number of American soldiers killed in Iraq (4,287) has surpassed the number of people who lost their lives in 9/11. And Senator Harry Reid, (Democrat Nevada) now declares this war to have been "the worst foreign policy mistake in the history of this country."
Perhaps the most disingenuous statement made about the consequences of 9/11 came from former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani who declared that ". . . we feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life."
On Sunday, an entire nation including thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples across America, will memorialize the innocent victims of 9/11. But who will mourn as well for the equally innocent victims of our foreign policy blunders? I will.
Related Post: Has America Learned Nothing from 9/11?
If only I could confine the wound in my heart to the 2, 988 men, women and children who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. But unfortunately, my emotions don't work that way. They refuse to be switched on or off depending on whose flag is draped over the victim's coffin.
U.S. Army field reports record that 66,081 Iraqi civilian deaths between January 2004 to December 2009 are attributable to the U.S. invasion of their country. This war of vengeance, launched to perk up American spirits after 9/11 has cost this country $3 trillion, according to a September 5, 2010 article in the Washington Post, and sent the U.S. economy into a downward spiral, from which it has still not recovered. The number of American soldiers killed in Iraq (4,287) has surpassed the number of people who lost their lives in 9/11. And Senator Harry Reid, (Democrat Nevada) now declares this war to have been "the worst foreign policy mistake in the history of this country."
Perhaps the most disingenuous statement made about the consequences of 9/11 came from former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani who declared that ". . . we feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life."
On Sunday, an entire nation including thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples across America, will memorialize the innocent victims of 9/11. But who will mourn as well for the equally innocent victims of our foreign policy blunders? I will.
Related Post: Has America Learned Nothing from 9/11?
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