Forgetting September 11th

CW: Deals with themes of terrorism, war and PTSD

“Oil and blood money fills the banks

And puts working class kids in tanks

All of the profits from all of the war crimes

Line all the pockets of all the fat swine

War machines breed chaos and pain

Blood falls from the sky like rain

So stand by the victims of freedom

And light a candle for the dead and the beaten…"

Never forget.

That’s what they told me. That’s what they told all of us. It was spelled out on signs posted in the streets downtown and in the subway stations and in the terminals at JFK International. Through my tears I saw the hopeless pleas of desperate people looking for their beloved dead printed on cheap rain-washed sheets of paper posted on the lamp posts everywhere I looked, as if all of those crushed and atomized victims might just suddenly show up on the doorstep with a bright smile someday soon. Like it was all just some strange case of confusion or amanesia and everything was perfectly fine. You can't blame them, I guess. No one wanted to face the harsh realities in those early days, but if your lost ones weren't home by dinner time that evening, they were never coming home again. That was the reality of it.

Never forget. NEVER!!! That's what they told us.

But they also told us, "If you see something, say something."

So that's what I am going to do here.

One year from now we will be approaching the 25th anniversary, and I have not forgotten. I have not forgotten a single thing. I have not forgotten the horror I felt watching the TV news reports that morning. I have not forgotten the blurred images of the bodies diving from the top of the tallest skyscrapers in America to avoid a far more hellish fate inside. I have not forgotten that greasy black column of smoke blowing away from those two burning towers against the backdrop of a beautiful clear blue September sky. I have not forgotten the people running through the streets of lower Manhattan covered in the ruins of the fallen buildings and the ashes of the dead. I have not forgotten the primal blood lust that washed over me before sunset that day. I will never forget any of it. I wish I could.

So, let’s tally the butcher’s bill together, shall we? Perhaps it might be informative to retrace our steps at this point in time.

The wars waged in Afghanistan and Iraq have collectively cost the US taxpayer approximately six to eight trillion dollars. Estimates vary. (According to AI, a stack of one trillion dollars in hundred dollar bills would stand 67,866 miles high, approximately twice the altitude of a long-distance commercial airline flight. Try to picture that for a moment. Then multiply it by 6-8x.)

So what did we purchase for all of those tax dollars and all of that pain, death and destruction? All of those broken hearts and broken lives and orphaned children and terminated futures? Let’s review the running tab together and see if it all adds up.

Deaths of US Service Members: 7,085 (average age 26 years old)

Non-Fatal Casualties to US Service Members: 60,618

PTSD-related Suicide Deaths of US Military Veterans: Approximately 30,000 (four times the total number of US military combat deaths in both wars)

And just to put all of this in perspective…

Total number of Iraqi/Afghani Deaths: Approximately one million souls. No one really knows the true number and no one ever will. The fog of war always clouds over all such marginally relevant statistical details. What’s the importance of another one or two hundred thousand lives, give or take, for history’s record books? Just a simple rounding error in the big picture.

I actually cheered when I saw the bombs dropping on Baghdad and Kabul. I cheered for the incineration of countless innocent civilians. What the fuck is wrong with me? I wasn't thinking clearly. I wasn't asking myself the right questions.

For starters, can you kill one million people without inspiring enmity? Vengeance? Blood oaths?

I don’t think so. An eye for an eye. Hasn't that always been the way? From ancient Mesopotamia to present day Iraq, you don’t really have to travel very far, metaphorically or psychologically, to get there. It's in our blood. But does it have to be?

You reap what you sow. That has always been the way, and I don’t want my children, or your children, to have to pay up when reap time comes. And it will come. It always does.

And so, just as we are comforting ourselves that we have addressed the present threat with overwhelming military force, we ensure the repetition of the cycle. The flywheel will just continue to turn. It will all happen again. It has already begun, just with different geographical coordinates now. There’s always a new place to spill blood for your flag and there always will be, until your flag flies no more.

Here are some additional metrics to consider:

Tax dollars awarded to private sector companies for US Military contracts related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $138 Billion (minimum estimate). KBR - a former subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation, who Iraq War architect Vice President Dick Cheney previously served as CEO - was awarded approximately $40 billion alone.

Total allied forces (US military coalition partners) killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan: Approximately 1,500.

Total human/financial cost and social impact of food insecurity, childhood malnutrition, disease, increased poverty, civil unrest, government upheaval and various forms of collateral damage to civil infrastructure? We will simply never know. We won't ever know.

When it comes to the might and brute force of the US military, it really doesn’t matter what the inciting incident was or how you feel about it. Just don’t be near the tracks when you hear the train coming your way. I live under the banner of security that our armed forces provide and I am eternally grateful for their protection. I just wish that our elected “leaders” would be far more cautious with the calculations they make regarding the expense of human lives. They are never the ones who come home in the flag-covered caskets and it is never their families who are left broken and devastated, desperately attempting to deal with the daily challenges of physical rehabilitation and the long-term effects of PTSD, addiction and various other mental and physical health issues.

So let’s go back to the top and do some basic math here. Let's consider the costs of prosecuting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to date.

$2.3 trillion = The estimated remaining cost of disability, related benefits, and medical care for veterans of these two wars through 2050.

$300 million = Estimated annual US financial cost of prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (for 24 years and running).

Loss of international goodwill, respect and trust? Unknown. Unknown and unmeasurable.

It really doesn’t add up, does it? When you do all the math, it simply doesn’t add up. There’s no way to square that circle. It’s just an objectively poor investment of time, effort, money, political capital and, most of all, blood.

I think we can surely find better things to do with all of those precious resources. Much more productive things. Things that might lead to a better future.

“America, we stood so silent!

Hear no evil, see no violence!

Speak no evil, keep it mindless!

We’re all caught up in this war

It’s all a racket, all a score

Red or Blue, Green money talks

We send our kids off 'to die for us all'

But not really…”

That’s our world now, but maybe it can change. If change is what we want.

They said “Never Forget."

I will not forget. I will never forget any of it.

THE END