A Commentary by Doug Draper
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 – a day that most of us, now over the age of 20, will never forget where we were when we first heard the news. A day that (to borrow the words the late U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt used in the hours following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor) “will live in infamy.”
So much has been made of the fact that 9/11, as it will forever be remembered, began as such a beautiful, late summer day with a bright and shining sun rising in blue, cloudless skies over most of the northeaster United States and southeastern Canada. And I know I wasn’t the only one who was feeling more on the upbeat side on that sun-swept morning as I sat down in a diner for a cup of coffee with some friends before going to work.
Then, a few minutes before 9 a.m., I heard the cries of “Wow” and “Oh My God” in that Thorold, Ontario diner where the screen on the wall was always turned to CNN back then, and my friends and I looked up to see clouds of black smoke rising from one of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan. As we continued to wonder how a plane could miss one of the three major airports in the vicinity and strike a building on such a clear day, a second jet struck the other tower and we knew, what everyone else watching this in real time across the continent realized as the fireball ballooned more than 90 stories above the streets of lower Manhattan. This was a deliberate attack and that was confirmed not to many minutes later when another plane crashed into the Pentagon just outside of Washington, D.C. and yet another blew a crater in the farmlands of Pennsylvania.
In the days and weeks following that terrible day, it seemed like something redeeming was unfolding within the United States and Canada, and between our two nations as neighbours despite a heightened security that made it more difficult crossing our shared border. In my community of Thorold, for example, people donated thousands of dollars for the families of 9/11 victims and our council sent some of our firefighters to ‘Ground Zero’ – the site of the fallen World Trade towers – to help exhausted emergency workers there search through the rubble for victims’ bodies.
Canada also joined the United States and other NATO countries on a military mission in Afghanistan to hunt down and capture or kill Osama bin Laden and the gang of psychos who orchestrated the attacks. Most of us seemed all for that, but then everything morphed into what has been a 10-year nightmare that continues.
The U.S. administration of George W. Bush left troops from Canada and other ally countries high and dry when it invades Iraq for reasons many, including growing number of Americans, can’t understand. And instead of simply going into Afghanistan, hunting down bin Laden and company, and getting out, it went on and on. A decade later and all of the lives that have been lost, and the more than a trillion dollars both countries have collectively spent on military operations that could have been invested back here at home on health care, on educating our children, on green energy and on renewing our infrastructure, what do we have to show for it?
What do we have to show other than the loss of life of some good, patriotic young people who could have dedicated their lives in so many other ways to bettering our countries? What do we have to show other than a loss of freedoms that has seen everyone from young children to nice old people who look like Aunt Bee from Mayberry get felt up or body scanned at our airports, and the economic health of our countries, including millions of good-paying jobs that once sustained a middle class, are sucked down the bowl of a toilet.
The across-the-border surveillance of virtually all of us is an open admission, on the part of our governments in the United States and Canada, that they still hardly have a clue, let alone the intelligence capabilities, to focus in on who they really need to be looking for. In Canada, for example, our intelligence forces have still not been able to get one conviction on the Air India bombing disaster 25 years ago, which remains the worst act of terrorism launched on our country’s soil. No wonder our American neighbours do not trust our surveillance agencies to find terrorists that might enter their country from Canada.
So 10 years later, we remain in a mess, including an economic one that may see other nations like China and India surpass us in prosperity, in quality of life and in the development of renewable energy that will at long last supplant coal, tar sands and other forms of oil, and will propel those nations that tap these new and greener energy options in to leaders in this 21st century.
Meanwhile, we in Canada and the United States have squandered the better part of the past decade on old energy and World War One and Two solutions to addressing threats to our peoples. Here in Canada, our federal government has made it clear it would rather spend tens of billions of dollars on new fighter jets and other military armaments than on educating our children or providing the best of health care to our seniors. There is no indication that these governments are prepared to re-allocate some of those billions to more sophisticated intelligence operations.
Lest any of us forget, bin Laden and his terrorist faction always said they hoped the 9/11 attacks would draw the United States and its allies into military escapades that would eventually drain the life blood out of them.
It is up to us – we the people in both countries – to direct our countries in a more positive and productive direction, if it is not too late.
Let us all hope – for the sake of young people in our countries that have been born since 9/11 and for generations not yet born, that it is not too late to make up those 10 years and that we still have the will and the resources to make this continent more peaceful, prosperous and greener one for those who will be here long after those of us who remembered where we were on that tragic day are gone.
We at Niagara At Large invite all of our readers to share your views below in the comment boxes. Please remember that we only post comments by people willing to do what we do in our news and commentary – share their first and last names.
Niagara At Large 
The is often a disconnect between peoples and those who govern them. I would think that many if not most American people think that the unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is a mistake (a war crime in fact). But the troops are still there, in what has become a tragic mess … more disastrous than it was under the American-supported Sadam Hussein. Worse yet is that Iraq has become a breeding ground for potential terrorists. The world, as a consequence, is less safe because of the U.S and U.K invasion and occupation. This does not serve any country’s national interest. I think we as citizens need to start using terms such as “war crime” and “state sponsored terrorism” when countries disobey international laws and World Court decisions.
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The US perpetually sets up puppets (Hussein, the Shah, the Taliban against the Russians in Afghanistan) for military, strategic or (most often) financial reasons. They support gov’ts that frequently break international laws against elected legitimate govt’s (eg Israel vs Palestine).These projects continuously backfire so a further increase in US interference is required to remedy the messes they created. Inevitably the countries interfered with become unstable cesspools creating hatred by the citizens of the nations involved. Their interferences around the world have resulted in the deaths of many innocent civilians…called “collateral damage”…what a nice sanitary phrase. Then they wonder why they get attacked. When they retaliate against the attackers there is more hate. Never ending cycle.Sadly the average Joe ends up going to war and dying for “democracy” while the military-industrial complex grows wealthy.Will it ever end? Doubt it. The attackers achieved their objective…hate and bankruptcy of the US. Way to go.
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I got it now. Thanks for educating me. 9/11 was not caused by terrorists but by the US government. How ridiculous can you get?
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So true. The US cannot perpetually interfere where it has no right. For example, why invade Iraq when the terrorists were Saudis and Yemenis? How many citizens of Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries have to die before they get po’d and fight back? Was the US not angry after 9/11? Other conutries have put up with US bombings and incursions for years. The chickens just came home to roost. It is not the fault of the average US citizen but of successive governments controlled by corporate greed. How would anyone feel if strangers (in this case foreign missiles and soldiers)came into their house and killed their family? Just food for thought.
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Nick, I agree with the pursuit, apprehension/extermination of Bin Laden and his cohorts. Likewise for Al Qaeda. Justice must be served.
But the invasion and occupation of Iraq was/is a war crime. There have been from 102,417 to 111,938 civilian deaths from violence in Iraq since the invasion (conservative figures). Unacceptable.
The U.S and U.K decision-makers responsible for much of the carnage should be held accountable. The world is less safe because of their decisions.
I’m pleased to provide you with this information, and I would add that many if not most American citizens likely share my position at least to some degree. The statistics quoted can be found at Iraq Body Count if you Google it.
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I find it hard to believe that it is OK to go in and assasinate bin Laden and to go in and try to assasinate Ghadaffi but for some reason Saint Hussein should not have been dealt with.
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Unfortunately, Hussein, during the worst of his dictatorship, was empowered and supported by U.S. There’s oil in Iraq, and it has some strategic usefulness as well. Superpowers sometimes/often find dictatorships easier to deal with than democracies, so they prop them up and make the country a client state. That doesn’t excuse the lies that were perpetuated to invade Iraq. Hussein should have been dealt with by Iraqis. Likely there would be more democracy in the Middle East if it weren’t for oil and the interference of powerful countries.
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Ghadaffi was the head of Libya and bin Laden was the head of al Quaida. To use your reasoning one would have to believe that Ghadaffi should have been dealt with by the Libyans and bin Laden dealt with by al Quaida.
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As the author of this piece, it has been a bit disturbing to receive comments from those who feel my commentary was somehow anti-American, and from those on the other side, riding who are channelling Noam Chomsky ideology to slam the United States to the point that some suggested the U.S. may have had it coming.
As a friend and relative of many in the U.S. (including some I noted who had loved ones die in the twin towers, and I’m talking about friends and relatives who question their government’s response to the 9/11 attacks, I find many of these comments wanting.
Perhaps this author missed the mark in framing 9/11 in this post, but isn’t it possible that the dynamics are a little more complicated than you are either on one side or the other?
Ten years later, one might think that we could have a dialogue a little more thoughtful, that doesn’t slam those who question the response to 9/11 (i.e. – the invasion of Iraq, on the one hand) and the failure to hunt down and kill bin Laden in a more timely manner, which we could have done closer to a decade ago, on the other.
This tragedy shouldn’t be about those who want to stand up for the ideology of Sarah Palin on the one hand, or Noam Chomsky on the other.
If you want to have that fight, go have it at a coffee shop somewhere. The issues are much more complicated here. The future of our children is at stake.
Doug Draper, Niagara At Large.
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