September 11th, Twenty Years Removed

In “Sympathy for the Devil” Mick Jagger famously sang “I shouted out Who killed the Kennedys? When after all it was you and me.” One might ask the very same question about Afghanistan. As we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I can’t help but wonder how much culpability all of us have for these 2,455 soldier’s deaths and 2 Trillion dollars spent.

Some folks are suddenly concerned about the last 13 who died in Afghanistan, but they don’t seem to have cared about the thousands who died in the previous two decades. Of course the 2,455 soldiers killed doesn’t include the 3,476 contractors who also died there.

And, there is of course the money. In the 20 years since September 11, 2001, the United States has spent more than $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan (all government agencies, not just DoD). That’s $300 million dollars per day, every day, for the last two decades.

Where are we, the American People, in all of this? It’s as if we as a nation have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with our very own combination of inattentiveness, impulsivity, and then hyperactivity. Doesn’t that describe how we as a country react to so many things?

Did we previously care about the Afghan women? The translators? Our GIs there? Now, we are magically, gravely concerned. Where were we one year, five years, ten years or twenty years ago? Sadly, we all know the answer to that question.

Our Presidents, Republican and Democrat committed our troops to Afghanistan. Our Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike approved the dollars spent there. It’s pretty easy to engage in a 20 year war with other people’s sons and daughters, and finance it with deficit spending. Just send kids, guns and money… And Now? Now all anyone wants to do is find someone to blame. American hypocrisy knows no limit and has no shame.

It’s not a problem though. With our collective ADHD, our attention will soon flit to some other topic du jour and those twenty years will quickly fade away. We might briefly look at the problems that confront us here and now at home – disease, healthcare, environmental challenges, domestic terrorism, inequality and border issues to name a few. Will we have the moral courage, conviction and concentration to do the hard work and address these and other concerns?

Where is the soul of America these days? Where have our humanity, faith and decency gone? Perhaps we should start with those.

Maybe, on this 20th anniversary of 9/11 we can quietly remember how we felt 20 years ago. We can at least try to reclaim some of our humanity, faith and decency. If we don’t, the rest of the Stone’s lyrics might well prove prophetic for us as a nation.

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Addendum:

⁃ I wrote one other blog about my experiences during 9/11 and the Phoenix Project the year after. You can find it here: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/05/september-11th-and-the-phoenix-project/

⁃ Thanks to my friends Tim, Mark, Colleen, Larry and Donna for their thoughts and contributions to this blog. They all added different views and ideas that greatly improved my original efforts.

⁃ It’s a bit difficult to come to a definitive number of US deaths in Afghanistan. Some figures count only those who die in country. Others add in those wounded there, who die elsewhere. Still others also add those who died in other countries in support of operations in Afghanistan. I’ve have found no totals that also include those who have committed suicide back here at home.