The 25th anniversary of 9-11-01 – certainly a day to remember, a day that set America’s course for much of my adult life. We had no idea how much was going to change because of that day.
Like most of us I have a very clear memory of where I was on that day. I can remember watching the news in our small new seaside condo, in Leucadia. Then the wild horror when it became clear that this was all a coordinated attack, not some random tragedy. The unreal scene of the towers falling. My vivid memory makes Ted Cruz’s statement lie about not remembering if Convict Donny was on scene or not so, so obvious. Everyone remembers. It was a strange, surreal day, become only more strange as we’ve lived through its repercussions. 9-11 changed America from a hopeful, helpful worldly culture into the frightened fascist culture we’re on the verge of becoming, the culture of hate that MAGA has already become. In the long term, the terrorists won.
America needs another singular event to pull itself out of the self-inflicted damage that Convict Donny is doing. It will almost certainly have to be a common enemy (not immigrants, for fuck’s sake) that more or less unites us. Maybe climate change accelerates and it becomes an existential threat, quickly. Maybe aliens land and all those science fiction stories/movies I love become true. Maybe the idiots running AI companies lose control of their systems and we get attacked by the bots. But I think it’ll take something like that, something existential and dramatic, to change our course again. I probably won’t be around to see it.
Meanwhile, a much larger than advertised Middle East war is brewing. The Saudis (who attacked us on 9-11, and who now are inexplicably our allies) are being attacked by Iran and its allies. With the Strait of Trump/Epstein Hormuz effectively closed, the Saudis have been moving oil northward, up through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Iran is trying to close that route also. So on one front we have Israel v Palestine and its proxies. On another front we have Iran v Saudi/Quatar and others. Russia backs Iran, the US backs Saudi and Israel, and China just watches the fun. Convict Donny’s idiotic foreign relations, dumbass wars and corrupt trade deals have created a potent mix of conflict coming to a head in the Middle East. Any day now things are going to escalate, and they may escalate fast. A missile strike on a US aircraft carrier or a tactical nuke in Riyadh l and we’re in WW3.
It’s all so predictable and avoidable, though with the Trump administration in charge, things will only get worse.
I normally try to bring these gloom and doom essays back around to something more positive, but I’m not sure I can rescue this one. Maybe the best thing to do today is to embrace the suck, reflect on all the mistakes we’ve made since 9-11-01 and find a way to do better.