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Not since the assassination of John Kennedy has
the American government had such an exhaustive investigation.
Every detail of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is
documented in exhaustive fashion. You
know all you want to know about the religious fanatics who hijacked
airliners and used them as guided missiles.
You know the last words of the heroic struggle to retake one of
the planes. You know the American intelligence community was asleep and
ignored warning signs. Years earlier the findings of the Warren
Commission called Lee Harvey Oswald the sole conspirator in the death of
President John Kennedy. It
raised more questions than it answered.
Likely the report on 9/11 may do the same things for a definite
reason. In the newspaper business to write a story, you
ask six questions. They are
called the five Ws and an H. Who?
What? When?
Where? Why?
And How? Both commissions followed the system faithfully,
with one exception. They
didn’t delve into why the acts were committed. We accept that Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes
Booth, through a deranged revenge for the Civil War.
We accept that William McKinley was shot by a jobseeker who had
been denied a job. Tragic,
but it made sense. Kennedy’s assassination was not as easy to
answer. Some still wonder
just why Oswald would take it on himself to act alone.
There will always be unanswered questions. The 9/11 Commission didn’t have to look very
far to see why Osama bin Laden’s terrorists attacked us.
But did they? Does
the 9/11 report address the seeds of hatred that brought on the worst
tragedy to hit American shores? Religious hatred was old when Moses told the
Pharaoh to “let my people go.”
Wars were waged. Genocide
was used to eliminate opposing religions.
During the Middle Ages, knights in armor were expected to make a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land—to free Jerusalem from the “infidels.”
The infidels had a religion different from Christianity. They had the idea that their Islamic beliefs were the only
one, and the Christians were the Infidels.
At one time, Muslims had conquered half the known world.
During the Dark Ages, the doctors in the
European world might carve a cross on a patient’s forehead to release
the evil spirits causing a headache.
The Middle East physicians prescribed herbs and diet.
A leader named Saladin, born to a Kurdish family in Mesopotamia,
captured Jerusalem and held it against crusading knights.
The Christian nations had their crusades.
He launched his own holy war, his jihad to spread the Islamic
religion. That was in the 12th Century, 13 hundred years
ago. Religious hatred is
still alive and well in the Middle East.
The nucleus has been the failure of the Israelis and Arabs,
particularly in Palestine, to live together.
Other nations, particularly America, have been pulled into the
burning slaughter of lives and hope for peace.
Palestine sends a suicide bomber over to kill Israelis.
Then Israel sends over a tank to retaliate.
The cycle escalated instead of improving. The 9/11 Commission could easily see the cause
of bin Laden’s jihad. Hatred
of Israel and anyone associated with them, hatred of anyone not of his
faith. America was the
target. He wanted his own
Holy War. Although he is
not the military genius Saladin was, he found fertile hatred in the
Muslim world. America’s leaders have learned nothing from
the Israel-Palestine conflict. Bombs
and tanks don’t cure hate. Communication
and understanding does. No
one can build enough defense systems to stop one fanatic seething with
hatred. As one Islamic
leader said, kill one terrorist and it inspires ten more. The world is smaller daily. We have to root out the seeds of hatred and learn to live
together. There is no other
way. The 9/11 Commission
should have seen that.
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