Ekonk said:
So I was wondering - considering all the conspiracy theories concerning the 9/11 attacks, ranging from the plausible to the downright ridiculous, and a 2006 poll I read about a while ago that states that a third of American citizens believes that the American government isn't entirely open about 9/11 and their actions therein - what do you Escapists think about 9/11?
I think that the US goverment is open about the attacks themselves (which is why I voted support of the US side of events), the issues of them holding back information being true, but in connection to what happened afterwards.
I feel that a lot of the issues over this, both domestically and internationally, are simply because wars, especially long wars, are never popular. It's much easier to oppose an unjust war, if you can convince yourself of it, than a just one, when you just want it to end.
The bottom line is that we're locked into this ongoing "winning the peace" quagmire that could last decades more, if it even succeeds (and it probably won't). Nobody wants to put the blood on their hands to end the situation (as I talk about), and people pretty much just want to it to be over with even if that means pulling out, and facing repercussions down the road for it. Immediate gratification of a sort.
The international community also doesn't like the simple fact that they have to deal with upset Muslims, and of course the whole war hampers their trade.
In looking at the conspiricy theories, you have to look at who benefits from the accusations of the basic war being an unjust one, when you look at things from that perspective, it's pretty obvious your not dealing with impartial truth seekers. People WANT to believe these things to end the war, which means that I think people are becoming less and less critical of accusations made against it.
Now, after the 9/11 attacks you CAN make a lot of criticisms of how the war has been being fought. See, one of the reasons why we got involved in this whole "winning the peace" thing was because it let the goverment pass out rebuilding contracts for projects in the region. Guys like Bush and Cheney handed them out (along with security and contracts and the like) to their buddies in exchange for kickbacks. I'm not totally Anti-Bush (unlike many people here) but I do feel once the war got going he himself derailed it for money. I do not however believe that the war was started for those reasons or anything so stupid as "avenging his daddy" or taking control of the oil. Heck, I'd actually feel BETTER if we annexed a few oil fields in the region at gunpoint and claimed them as payment for our time and trouble (and to recoup all the money we've been spending).
