Fuze Mediaboard 0.2 - 9/11 Remembrance Release
Today we commemorate those who have lost their lives in the terrorist attacks 25 years ago.
The United States of America was a very prosperous country before 9/11, and people had every reason to be optimistic: The government was functioning relatively well; the year 2000 was the last time the treasury would run a budget surplus; New technologies - mobile phones, the internet - were changing the world in positive ways; the Berlin Wall fell just 12 years earlier; Francis Fukuyama published The End of History and the Last Man, predicting that Western liberal democracy would soon spread throughout the world.
25 years later, the mood is anything but optimistic.
There are many Americans who can't stop apologising for crimes committed by their ancestors, whilst granting moral sanction to today's islamic terrorists by saying they're justified in fighting "Western imperialism". There are others with metal screws lodged in their skulls, who claim that a shadowy group of "elites" (wink wink) orchestrate these attacks, in order to drag us into war at the behest of another country.
The truth is that the West has failed to identify who the enemy is, and failed to take the necessary action to defeat the enemy.
Just War theory is largely responsible for thousands American soldiers dying for nothing. Defeat. It is a doctrine which elevates civilian lives above the lives of our solders. If the Allies had followed this doctrine in World War 2, it would have dragged on for much longer, if not ending in defeat; The carpet bombing of German cities and the nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are what made the enemy surrender.
The reluctance to identify Islam as a threat - specifically the more radical factions (commonly referred to as "Islamism") - has also contributed to the rise of the far right in Europe. Muslims in Europe are more numerous and, on average, more radical than in America. Germany's CDU allowed millions of muslim migrants to flood in, with no background checks but rather welfare cheques - and wonder why they lost by a landslide to the far-right AfD in a recent by-election.
It is not Iraq and Afghanistan which should have been attacked following 9/11, but Iran. Their government regularly chants "Death to America" and "Death to Israel"; they fund terrorist proxies across the middle east; and their nuclear ambitions were well known in 2001. Unfortunately, the United States is currently ruled by a president who is not fit to run the country, and his failure in Iran is just one of a long string of blunders which have made America the laughing stock of the world. The war in Iran could have been won, and it should have been won. Instead, it was a major strategic failure: there was no procedure in place to keep the Strait of Hormuz open; the Trump administration would not strike infrastructure; and Trump even denied a military plan to open the Strait. As a result, islamists around the world have become emboldened by the idea that Allah is protecting the Iranian regime. Also, Russia is benefiting from higher oil prices and using the money to attack Ukraine. The negative ramifications go on and on.
Victory in Iran would take out the mothership of islamic terrorism - and their proxies would topple like dominoes. It is sad that this was very close to happening. It would have taken fierce military action - more than Trump was willing to do. It would have taken strategic thinking - which this government lacks. It would have taken the lives of American soldiers, and likely many civilians too - but they would not have died in vain. Only this would bring closure to the 9/11 victims' families, and more importantly, this would take the wind out of the sails of islamism. Also maybe China would think twice about invading Taiwan if the West showed some unity in standing up to evil, rather than empty words.
There is nothing to be gained from negotiating with evil. The only way to achieve victory is to bring the enemy to its knees, using any means necessary.
