While viewing America’s solemn commemoration of the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, I began to reflect upon its many ironies. The very first thing that came to mind was Dick Cheney’s claim that the Bush administration’s policies in response to 9/11 has kept America safe but how can that be? When one looks upon the trauma anger, and pain still etched upon the face of America eight years after the loss of 3,000 of its citizens, one can only imagine what the Iraqi people are feeling after the documented murder by name of over 101,552 innocent men, women, and Iraqi children.
Americans, like literally every culture have a tendency to discount the value of the lives of people from other cultures. We tend to forget that people in other countries grieve and mourn the loss of their loved ones just as we do. So even though eight years later we grieve and commemorate the loss of 3,000 Americans, the unjust murder of  101,552 inno-
cent Iraqis tend to be just an abstract number to us. But as we mourn our own, we should stop to consider what that number represents. If we stopped to consider that the population of Iraq is only one tenth that of the United States, we’d recognize that in order for a terrorist group to bring the kind of carnage and destruction that we’ve perpetrated upon the people of Iraq, they’d have to kill one million and seventy-one thousand innocent American men, women, and children. So as we grieve over 3,000 American lives—just imagine what the people of Iraq must be feeling. So as we mourn the unjust deaths of our American compatriots, that anguish should be coupled with our outrage over that very same kind of injustice multiplied thirty-four fold that’s been perpetrated upon the Iraqi people in our name. To do anything less is to desecrate the memory of those we’ve lost since those 3,000 Americans didn’t just die at the hands of terrorists they ultimately died at the hand of injustice.
So the enemy is not just Osama Bin Laden. The true enemy is the moral depravation that Osama represents. Then under the guise of avenging the death of the 9/11 victims, our government perpetuated the very same kind of moral depravation in Iraq and much more. And for what? The 9/11 victims are still dead and America is no better off than we were on September 12, 2001. In fact, we’re much worse off. On September 12, 2001 Osama Bin Laden was strutting around in the hills of Afghanistan thumbing his nose at America and as I write on September 16, 2009, Osama Bin Laden is still strutting around in the hills of Afghanistan thumbing his nose at us.
The only difference between our situation today and the day after 9/11 is that we’ve now lost an additional 4,106 young American troops and over 100,000 more wounded and left to live lives that will never be the same. In addition, America’s stature in the world has been irreparably damaged the U.S. Treasury has been ravaged our economy has been brought to its knees and the United States Constitution has been savagely attacked.
The irony is if it was Osama Bin Laden’s goal to bring America to its knee, she’s come very close to achieving that goal.   He
hit us at the perfect time—at a  time when greed, irresponsibility, and corruption was at the helm of state. As a result, the character of America has very possibly been changed forever. The excesses of the so-called super-patriots that we trusted to protect America remained true to their creed—“Never let a crisis go to waste.”
They took America’s pain after 9/11 and used it to solidify their power, weaken our American institutions and ideals, then enriched themselves and their cronies. They’ve fallen just short of turning the United States into a Banana Republic. Even as I speak, the institution of the presidency is under attack.
There’s an asserted effort afoot to destroy the American economy and elected officials are encouraging insurrection and even secession from the union. Yet, they tell us they’re keeping us safe, while indeed, they themselves are the greatest threat to America.
So President Obama’s hands are indeed full and he’s not going to be able to pull us out of this tailspin alone. This nation’s founding fathers must be turning over in their graves as they watch the blatant sabotage of this nation. And if we listen closely, we can hear them screaming for all true Americans to stand in firm solidarity behind this president and help him to save this nation.
But at the same time, they’re also speaking to this president. This is no time for the expediency of making deals with the devil. While our political initiatives are important, nothing is more important than protecting this nation from insurrection and tyranny—and if you look closely over the past eight months, it is clear that the gathering clouds of insurrection are moving in fast.
So as I watched the ceremonies it occurred to me that one of the greatest ironies of 9/11 by far is that those who were entrusted with protecting this nation have become so drunk from eight years of unfettered power, that they’ve overshadowed Osama Bin Laden himself as the greatest threat to America. And just like on the morning of 9/11, the American people don’t seem to have a clue to the danger headed their way.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist and a contributing writer and the author of “A Message From the Hood.