When hate-filled men from several of our Arab allies (Saudi Arabia, Egypt) highjacked and crashed planes into big buildings twelve years ago, I hoped that we would act like a "Christian nation." Instead of moral clarity, we came unhinged.
On the 12th anniversary of those attacks, we are debating whether to bomb targets in Syria. A few years ago, we cobbled together a coalition to bomb Libya. We bombed and invaded Afghanistan and Iraq within two years after the September 11 tragedy.
We declared that terrorists are jealous of our freedoms. To slake their envy, we lost the right to privacy. We can be patted down, scanned, and filmed no matter where we travel. Our government used the attacks as an excuse to spy on us, supposedly to "protect" us from future threats. Corporations are pouring money into our political system to elect politicians that promise to free these private companies from paying taxes and following laws. The only constitutional right that is apparently worth defending is the right to carry a gun everywhere.
Judging from our reactions to September 11 attacks in 2001, it seems to me that the terrorists won. They brought out the worst in us.
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