The memorial created for 9/11 victims at ground zero is a painful reminder of the mindless death and destruction of human beings. Nearly 3,000 of them, who for no reason or fault of their own became victims of a mindless and senseless terrorist attack.
Some who lost their loved ones have moved on and made peace within themselves, but many others watched the memorial aptly named 'Reflecting Absence' in pain and sadness. Some kissed the brass name plates of their lost ones, others made stencil copies of the names to keep as mementos. What must be most painful for the families is that only 291 bodies were recovered and not a shred of remains was found for the other 2,500 who perished. No watches. no rings, no teeth, no DNA to prove their death and yet, the families had to accept that their loved ones were lost forever.
The political speeches somehow felt out of place. Instead of easing the pain of affected families, politicians seemed to be making futile speeches. It may have been more respectful, had there been no politician speech at all.
On this somber occasion, one could not help but also feel pain and sorrow for the families of 150,000 Iraqis killed by a mindless and senseless war, launched in the name of 'War on Terror'. A war that was totally unnecessary, illegal and criminal. There were no speeches, nor any memorial built for the 150,000 who lost their lives in Iraq.
We all know now and many knew all along that Iraq had nothing to do with attacks of 9/11. But it is quite clear that George W. Bush and his gang of extreme right wing ne-cons came prepared to launch a war on Iraq regardless of whether 9/11 had happened or not.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague does not have the courage of conviction to haul them over on charges of crimes against humanity as ICCC only goes after minor third world dictators. Hopefully, one day the American families, who have suffered the consequences of this war, will haul them before a court of law in U.S. and ask them, why was it necessary for them to lose more than 5,000 sons and daughters to this war and 25,000 to have been maimed forever?
2 comments:
I agree with you Ajaz. Not only Iraq but Americans went into Afghanistan on a wrong pretext that Taliban was hiding Osama.
I recently heard that Saddam Hussein tried to challenge the American dominance of middle eastern oil by not trading his oil in US dollars. He started trading his oil in other currencies like Euro and Yuan. Hence he met his fate.
This war for dominance of world resources shall go on till some other nation in the world is able to stand up and stare in the eyes of Americans. After the fall of Russia as a power balancing force, America has behaving like a bully not a policeman.
It is a touching and thought provoking article, which brought back sad memories of what happened so many years ago. I wish and hope that one day the whole world stand up against the U.S government and say it's enough.
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