I woke up on 9/11/2001 sitting at my Parent’s house sitting in a recliner. I had torn the cartilage in my knee and I expected to stay there for a few days until I could get around on my own at my home. On this day, I expected to get an MRI on my knee and some painkillers of some sort (Tylenol or Ibuprofen).
My Dad woke up and I could hear him as he went into the kitchen, maybe to make some coffee. He flicked on the radio – most likely Milwaukee’s WTMJ Radio (620AM).
The news report was weird and didn’t make sense to me.
I spoke to my father from the living room: “Dad, I think they are doing some kind of War of Worlds thing on the radio. Turn on the TV and toss me the remote”.
My parents do not have cable TV so I turned on the NBC morning show (Katie Coric and Matt somebody). A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I had been there a few years ago sightseeing – but it was a cloudy day and my pictures were not too good.
Then a second plane hit.
I gave commentary to my parents: “We are now at war”.
The day is a blur. Reports of a truck bomb driving into the State Department building proved false, as did reports of one or more suicide bombers blowing themselves up on the capital mall. This was reported – I heard it – and then never repeated or withdrawn or corrected – just never mentioned again.
The Pentagon was hit. Where there more planes taken over? All flights were being ordered grounded or cancelled – but who knows. Was the President safe? He was in the air and mostly likely going to a war command post of some sort.
Blur, blur. The towers are falling. Blur blur.
My mom drove me to get an MRI. The Radio (NPR?) had Tom Clancy on talking…thank god…the first reasonable analysis I was hearing.
So who did this? The PLO? Al-Qada? Some front group funded or set up by Iran, Iraq, or Libya? I had no answers – just thoughts machine-gunning out of me. I watched and listened to the news almost nonstop all day and for the next several days.
In this mid evening, my eyes started watering up. We are war. I paraphrased the war plan the USA should use to my parents:
Track down the terrorist and kill them and their families. Find their support network and kill them and their families. Find their financiers – turn some of them – kill the rest along with their families. Find the possible state sponsors and be prepared to destroy those nations. Be prepared to fight Islam (I never thought anybody but Islamic forces were behind the attack). Be prepared to fight long and hard with periods of quiet. Be prepared for deception operations to disrupt the US. I had tears because I was not sure my nation was up to it any longer and I wasn’t sure anybody would fight with us (I feared most of out “Allies” might sit this one out) – and because I didn’t think there would be a role fore me.
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Afterwards:
The war goes on, the fight goes on. The West is facing a 21st conflict with many forces mostly “Islamofascism” from the Arab/Islamic world. The West is not fully committed to the war. Many inside the West really don’t want to win – so twisted with self-hate they have become.
I believe the US will win the war eventually. In this I have almost no doubt. Hopefully, the US and the West will become strong practitioners of 4GW and slowly contain, disrupt, marginalize and destroy the Forces of Islamofascism while they shrink away to nothingness. I don’t care if this is from globalization side-effects, active gap-shrinking, offensive war, or an unexpected (but needed) democratic/modernizing Islamic reformation.
My fear is that the islamofascists will acquire nuclear or strong biochem weapons and capability to use them against the West. I expect the Arab/Islamic world bonded together by Islam – the major source of misery and wasted human capital in the Arab/Islamic world – will erupt in cheers and celebrations for the mass murder of US citizens or Western citizens. Then we will have no choice but to act to destroy Arab/Islamic civilization. It is this that I want the US to avoid, if we can.
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(“the day the world stood still Originally uploaded to Flickr by Kris Kros. )
Filed under: The War on Islamofascism | Tagged: History |
PurpleSlog - The Future Will Be Kludged 
Funny you should mention 2 other non-incidents–I don’t recall mention of suicide bombers on the capital mall, but I do remember hearing about the State Department–except I recall it being reported as a “car bomb”; wonder what the real story behind these reports were? I mean, this sounds a bit more than careless on the part of the media (over the past few years, I’ve actually wondered whether my memory of the State Dept. report was some sort of “false memory”).
Like you I first heard it all on the radio, first in my car en route to work, and then at work. (There was no TV.)
My coworker also made a “War of the Worlds” allusion.
It may have been “car bomb” that I heard of too…the day is starting to blur. I needed to write this post of what I remembered before I forgot.
We most likely were listening to the same broadcast. I think the networks (tv / radio) were getting all sorts of cell phoned in reports and were rushing to air snippets of info.
I do NOT mean to imply any sort of 9/11 conspiracy nonsense – just for the record.
If you ever get a chance to, listen to the old audio recording of the original War of the Worlds. It’s pretty good, and people throught it was really happening when they heard it on the radio.
[…] 9/11 Posted on September 11, 2009 by purpleslog I will just note my prior posts on 9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001. […]