No one reading this needs to be reminded of what happened 20 years ago. We have it etched in our souls. We will, as we always pledge, never forget.
Additionally, it is our duty to remember the 20 years of what President Trump called ‘American carnage’ that followed.
Overzealous and poorly informed, globalists dropped the nation’s children off into the desert. Many came back in coffins. Some never came back at all.
This has been the background of American life for the past 20 years.
As China launched its first manned space mission in 2003, Americans were dying in Afghanistan.
As Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Americans were dying in Iraq.
The founding of SpaceX, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, the first election of Angela Merkel, the inception of Twitter, the launch of the iPhone, the election of the first African-American president, the Boston Marathon bombing, the death of Michael Jackson, the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, the Malaysian Airlines disappearance, the Paris attacks, Europe’s Migrant Crisis, same-sex marriage, Brexit, Trump, and everything that came after.
All these events occurred against the backdrop of death, drone-strikes, and devastated families. On both sides.
Joe Biden’s handling of events – from cancelling an emergency evacuation bureau just months before the Afghanistan withdrawal to the vengeful murder of children in a final act of petulance and incompetence – should raise further questions about the actions and behavior of the West’s military and political leaders. What other incidents have occurred over there, 7000 miles away, in the name of the American public, or under the banner of Old Glory?
When we say “Never Forget,” we should recall the questions that need answering, too. And we must also remember the people who will need assistance the rest of their lives. We should remember the Americans that will need assistance their whole lives, before, if ever, we move onto migrants who fled their country when the Taliban returned.
One Harvard study from 2014 noted:
The single largest accrued liability of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is the cost of providing medical care and disability benefits to war veterans. Historically, the bill for these costs has come due many decades later. For instance, the peak year for paying disability compensation to veterans of the first world war was in 1969—more than 50 years after Armistice.
These estimates are from seven years ago, and added:
One-third of returning veterans are being diagnosed with mental health issues, suffering from anxiety, depression, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). More than 253,000 troops have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and, in many cases, concurrent with a PTSD diagnosis and complicating treatment and recovery. The suicide rate in the Army has more than doubled, with many who attempted suicide suffering serious injuries. The mental health epidemic will increase both immediate and long-term costs. In addition to the spending for mental health clinics, hiring psychiatric personnel, and paying higher disability benefits, research from previous wars has shown that these veterans are at higher risk for lifelong medical problems, such as seizures, decline in neurocognitive functioning, dementia, and chronic diseases.
Still, 21 years later America has a Biden in office and many of the same characters who designed, executed, and “learned” during these failed military adventures in power.
In 2016 it felt as if America had finally learned from the post-9/11 years. The globalist establishment had both no interest nor any intent on bringing an end to what have become known as the “forever wars”. Donald Trump was elected and bellowed across the national mall:
And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealised potential.
We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, we share one nation, one home and one glorious destiny.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
We are one nation and their their pain is our pain; their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.
The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidised the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our own military.
We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own.
And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.
It seemed, right then, that American was back.
Not whispered by the French President at some international summit, as in the early days of Joe Biden. But echoing from the steps of the Capitol, past the Washington monument, across the reflecting pool, and into the ears of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
Then, the empire struck back.
Trump’s years of American revivalism were stymied by the same people (and the same financial interests) responsible for the body bags in Iraq and the coffins coming home from Afghanistan. The same people who wanted similar American interventions in Syria, Libya, and Iran. That’s why they desperately wanted Hillary Clinton.
And for all Trump gave back to America in terms of its economic swagger and potency on the global stage, the declinists would once again hand it over, in the first few months of a Biden regime.
A questionable election, an Afghan withdrawal as bad as it gets, a resurgent pandemic, record inflation, and nothing yet to show for it. The 20th anniversary of 9/11 marks another year of heartbreak for an America still unrecovered from those moments in Manhattan, Arlington, and Shanksville.
