September 11th Remembered 5 years after the start of the Iraq War.

There is much in the news these days about the 5 years the United States has been in the Iraq War.  On March 20,, 2003 we began an invasion of another country and we have occupied this country since then.  This began my thinking of how we got there.  I like to get the fact straight so I have researched information on net in order to get a clear picture of the events leading us to war.  Clearly the catalyst to the Iraq war is the attacks on September 11, 2001. 

I was looking at a few timelines of the events that occurred on September 11 and found some facts I found interesting.  First of all it appears that my country’s leaders were quite (understandably) confused during the times proceeding the attacks.  They occurred seemingly without warning.  You could possibly argue that there was warning with this report or that report but hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20 and going there doesn’t do anyone any good. 

I do remember the speech President Bush gave the evening after the crashes.  Well I remember feeling something was missing.  There were over 500 people from nearly 25 countries from around the world.  As I was looking up information from this horrible day some particular information seemed to catch my attention.  In the morning of September 11th Russia’s president Putin called our President Bush to tell him he noticed our military was on alert but understood why and would not raise his militaries alert level.  This was at 11:15 on that morning.  He reacted very quickly to a quickly growing situation.  And President Bush did recognize that this was a clear sign that there was no more cold war.  Later that very day President Putin sends a telegram to President Bush saying “The series of barbaric terrorist acts, directed against innocent people, has evoked our anger and indignation.… The whole international community must rally in the fight against terrorism.”  Clearly he saw that it was an international event.

Later in the evening (8:30 p.m.) on September 11, President Bush addressed the nation on television.  He was there to tell people of the United States that it was safe, things were under control and not to be afraid.  This was pretty much accomplished but let me give you a quote from the very end of his speech: “This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you. Good night and God bless America.”  Apparently not recognizing how international the event was. 

I remember feeling sad that he did not use this as a spring board for international unity.  Had he taken the approach president Putin had reacted with, our “Global War on Terror” our governments is currently on would have been a lot easier, we may have gotten much more support for our actions in Afghanistan and we probably would not have attacked and later occupied Iraq for the last 5 years.  But who knows, hind sight is always 20/20 and speculating on what might have happened doesn’t do anyone any good. 

Yesterday, President Bush delivered a speech warning of "serious consequences for the world's economy" if the United States were to withdraw from Iraq and Al Qaeda were to seize control of the country's vast oil resources.  Was Al Qaeda in Iraq before March 20, 2003?  Probably not, Sadam’s Regime did not share power.  Well at least it seems GW recognizes that the economy is global.