How September 11 Caused an End of Innocence

Let me start out by saying that I was born and raised in America and love our freedom but I believe that this freedom can be found in some other countries. I am not a staunch supporter of borders and nationalities but we still currently need them to one extent or another. With that being said, I still support our troops but have issues with many of our grossly overpaid politicians. Some of my opinions are labeled un-American but I stand behind my beliefs.

9/11 changed my life by making me even more cynical than I was already. It caused me to see some of the worst aspects of people of more than just the Al-Qaeda attackers. The attacks were evil and people died for no reason. As heinous as these attacks were, the attackers were just following orders and thought they were doing the right thing, not much different from U.S. troops killing on orders. I do not condone the 9/11 attacks nor do I condone any senseless attack by anyone on anyone else anywhere in the world. However, acts of killing will always exist.

Below is a list of some things I learned as a result of 9/11 that made me cynical.

I thank and respect our American soldiers for fighting for our country but I believe we never belonged in Middle Eastern affairs. I think our soldiers put their lives at risk at the orders of elderly politicians with an agenda that is not just to save democracy. Our government attacked Saudi Arabia, then Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran -- which country next?

Many Americans and American news outlets act like 9/11 is the only attack in the world to cause deaths but it is far from the truth. 9/11 is the first major terrorist act on American soil but not the first attack -- the World Trade Center was also bombed in 1993 as one example. We also seem to make less of a fuss over deaths in foreign countries -- forgotten in days. This is not to lessen deaths on American soil but we should offer considerably more compassion for foreign deaths, be they terrorist acts or not, than we normally do. It is a point of dissention among the world that we are too America-centric.

Until 9/11, a minority number of Americans knew about the United States involvement in the Middle East since the 60s and 70s. I knew little about our relations with Arabs but 9/11 made me do some research. I found that our government helped give Hussein and bin Laden aid in the past to combat Communism. Our government helped two evil people to power -- was it inadvertent?

There are countless government conspiracies in regards to the 9/11 attacks, from gas being stored in the Twin Towers to mysterious images foretelling the attack on U.S. currency to the Pentagon building never being hit by a plane. I know that most conspiracies are without merit but the seeds of mistrust were firmly rooted and that is almost as strong as if the conspiracies were true. We all know all governments need to cover-up some things for national security but how far will our government go in the interest of democracy?

Why did our government send us over to fight Arab nations? Was it really just to preserve democracy? Or was it strictly for financial gain with Middle Eastern oil wells? It is rather convenient how our troops are ordered to avoid the oil fields much of the time and Dick Cheney and Bush's father being former heads of Halliburton with its focus being on oil. Halliburton has one of its headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. There was controversy over Halliburton being awarded several contracts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. Talk about a conflict of interest.

Why did we use so much of our taxpayer money to rebuild Iraq rather than that of Iraq's wealthy government? We spent hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild their country when Iraq had a ton of money to cover the expenses ten times over. Cut our education and Social Security but not military funding to help another country. I am all for helping others but in the end, we should help our own first.

The NYC fire department did help with the cleanup and rescue of those injured and some lost their lives -- for that, they deserve respect. However, many seem to have forgotten that while trying to help, the fire fighters almost got into a tussle with police over who arrived first and miscommunication that caused several deaths. Part of the issue was that their radios were not working properly. This does not make me feel safer.

NYC Mayor Guiliani took credit for securing ground zero but I do not believe he deserved it. There are countless accounts that directly contradict his claims. There is the fact that he claimed to help as much as rescue workers but was only there for about 29 hours over three months, it is questioned who ordered the city's emergency command center we in the Twin Towers along with fuel, he failed to order new and working radios for rescue workers and more. It is obvious that Guiliani jumped all over 9/11 to use the publicity for his own political gain and not just because he wanted to help. Sure, he gave good speeches to calm citizens but that is about all he did.

Guiliani was not the only politician who tried to gain from 9/11 publicity. President Bush also jumped at the chance to gain positive exposure over 9/11. Yes, it is a president's job to calm and reassure the citizens but he should not act as if he did anything useful beyond give speeches. When bin Laden was not found, he immediately switched gears to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be Unfounded. Remember our troops that died, not this president.

Most people seem to have forgotten the dozens of crooked charities that took money that was intended to help the 9/11 victims and their families. No, not all Americans came together to help.

There was controversy over a memorial statue of rescue workers. The issue was that the statue was comprised of people of different races that differed from those in the photograph used as a model for it. It is not racist to depict the actual people at ground zero.

Muslims were blamed for the 9/11 attacks but some Americans blamed all Arabs and even some Asians. There were countless uncalled for racist acts of violence against people of these races. I recall playing Yahoo! Pool in 2001 under one of my usernames, gugiej (first initial last), and being verbally attacked as causing 9/11. Racism is alive and well, folks.

The Patriot Act, the beefed up airport security and increased requirement for identification all made life more complicated and less private than ever before. Not all of the measures are for the better but 9/11 certainly caused them to be put in place. The reason itself instills some fear.

These are just some of the reasons stemming from 9/11 that increased my cynicism tenfold. I am sorry for all of the innocents that died in 9/11 and every war and attack throughout time. 9/11 is no different than countless acts of killing except that it happened on U.S. soil. I lost no family or family of friends in 9/11 --if I had, I would feel more anger. As it stands, my cynicism creates a certain numbness that took years to form and nothing surprises me now.

I wrote this article while listening to Don Henley's song, "End of Innocence," a fitting song to represent how 9/11 made many people feel and how I feel when thinking about the evil perpetrated by man.

John Gugie is a life-long resident of the Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton), which is approximately one hour north of Philadelphia.