9/11 is upon us again. Ceremonies will be held, flags flown, pledges recited and anthems sung but few will provided any semblance of a thoughtful consideration of the reason for which 9/11 took place. The late historian, Howard Zinn, said in an interview before he passed away, ““The important thing about 9/11 is that 9/11 was used as an excuse by the Bush administration to go to war, and furthermore that they have not investigated why 9/11 took place. This is something that should be asked. What should be asked is: why are there people in the world who want to blow up our buildings, who want to scare the American people, who want to do terrorist - why are there such people? If you start to ask that question, then that would lead you into, well, is it possible that there are people in the world, all over the world, who are absolutely enraged by American foreign policy? There’s a lot of evidence for that. That’s a lot easier to prove, a lot easier to prove than who conspired to plant bombs and so on and so forth. That’s what we should be concentrating on. We should be concentrating on in what way is American foreign policy responsible for the terrorism that exists in the minds and hearts of so many people in the world, and which in a small number of them results in violent acts.”

And related…in a piece in the Guardian entitled “Former EPA head admits she was wrong to tell New Yorkers post-9/11 air was safe”. Excerpt: A week after two hijacked passenger jets were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center, killing 2,753 people – 184 died in the Pentagon in Washington DC and 40 were killed when a United Airlines plane came down in a field in Pennsylvania – Whitman issued a statement. It said: “I am glad to reassure the people of New York … that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.” She has always maintained that as head of the EPA she was simply passing on what government scientists were telling her, warning those working at Ground Zero itself to wear respirators but dismissing concerns over the surrounding area, which was engulfed in dust and ash.” One need only took at the photo of the 2001 Whitman with Bush for instant comprehension.

“Who the Slayer? Who the Victim?
Speak.” Sophocles

[Photo: Gulnara Samoilova, Untitled, 2001. New-York Historical Society]