Obviously, the attacks of Sept. 11 were savage and evil, and their perpetrators are bad people.

It really is deeply saddening to know that some 3,000 people just going about their day are now dead because of a single calculated act of revenge and retribution.

It is tragic, and that tragedy in and of itself should be solemnly remembered.

But solemnly remembering an attack in which many people lost their lives and many more lost a part of their lives with the death of a friend or a significant other, maybe a parent or even a child, that is not what happens and that is not where I take issue.

I take issue with people happily embracing the flag-waving distractions and deliberately surfing the mass hysteria wave while the deaths are openly exploited in order to shield U.S. foreign and domestic policy from criticism.

Patriot Day has become our two minutes to hate, to remind us of our eternal enemy with whom we have always fought, do fight and will always fight until the end of time and that criticism and dissent cannot be tolerated.

You do not want to support Al Qaeda do you?
The problem is, United States troops are dying in vain.
Iraqi, Pakistani, Afghani and even U.S. civilians are dying in vain.

Why are they dying?

U.S. troops might still be suffering from the delusion that they are “fighting for freedom,” but whose?

Iraqi freedom to be subjected to murder by U.S. troops, or oppression (and murder) from Islamic militants?

Is it our freedom?

What freedom did Saddam Hussein threaten?

What freedom does any one specific terrorist group threaten us?
No, the only institution destroying freedom here in the U.S. is the U.S. government.

And that is what sickens me about Sept. 11.

And it should sicken you too.

How many more people have to needlessly die until Americans get over themselves?

A hundred?

A thousand?

A hundred thousand more?

It was the U.S.’s very interventionist and manipulative foreign policy which helped motivate the Sept. 11 attacks in the first place.

This policy is not in place to “defend freedom,” either; it exists only to defend the political and economic hegemony of the United States government.

Terrorism is the price of empire.

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