September 11 is NOT a day for celebration

      Our Homeowner's Association puts out American flags - hundreds of them - in the front yard of every house in the neighborhood.  They do it for Independence Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and President's Day.

      And for September 11.
      The other holidays mentioned above are days set aside to honor something or someone that is distinctly American or promotes pride in our nation.  (Ok, maybe not President's Day, but that's a separate article.)

      But September 11 clearly does not fit that categorization at all.  Let's call 9-11 what it really is:  a day of death, destruction, defeat, and shame.  A day where the U.S. government and the U.S. military totally failed in what is arguably their most important mission:  to protect Americans on American soil - despite over a $Trillion dollars spent over the previous decade, ostensibly for "defense".  On that day, the bad guys won.  Big time. 

      As I watched the drama unfold on my TV that awful day, I made a prediction that came to pass beyond my wildest dreams.  I predicted that the hard-core Conservatives in our government would draw conclusions that were 180 degrees wrong.  I predicated that they would say that that this happened because our foreign policy is too isolationist.  They will say that the only way forward is to vastly expand the U.S. global military empire, and we need to attack, invade, occupy, and intervene in more nations, especially in the Middle East.  They will say that the military budget is much too small and must be doubled or tripled or whatever, and that live soldiers are expendable.   They use this awful event to advance the agenda that had eluded them for years.

      Of course they will deny it with their last breath, but there is absolutely no doubt what all the hard-core conservatives did that day:  They went into a private, soundproof room and shut the door.  And then they raised their fists in a joyous celebratory victory pump and shouted:  "YESSS!!!"

      It was bad enough that some 3 thousand innocent Americans lost their lives, and some $10 billion in infrastructure and property was destroyed that day.  But the death and destruction and $zillions of squandered in the Middle East puts the original day to shame.  The Middle East has been the most violent and unstable region in the world for centuries, and there is nothing that the U.S. government can do to change that.  Attempting to do so only makes terrorist targets of us all.

      A more appropriate day to commemorate 9-11 would be to observe a moment of silence to remember the innocent ones who died.  Then put our hats back on, and resolve to explain to our fellow countrymen that the reason the United States is a great nation is our culture of limited government - NOT because we are supposed to be some kind of tax-supported global military empire.  That image of the American swaggering buckaroo is repulsive to most other people around the world.  

      Let's bring the troops home, and stop allying with brutal, murderous, despotic tyrants all over the globe.  Let's cut the military budget down to a fraction of its present size, and stop trying to remake the world into some idealistic American image.  Let our enemies across the ocean destroy themselves with their endless wars, while we watch from the sidelines.  

    Then we'll truly have something to celebrate.