Above, one of the stunning AP photos of the site of terror attacks ten years ago. While we are remembering all those we have lost, and again being wow’d by all those who responded so magnificently, enjoy more of the new site at the Daily Mail.
Yesterday leaders gathered first at the Pentagon and, later, in Shanksville to honor those who lost their lives. If you missed the very moving speech by President Bush, you can see it below.
While former leaders were involved with ceremonies on Saturday, the President and the First Lady went to Section 60 in Arlington to pay tribute to the US warriors there, who had lost their lives in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
I would very much like to believe the nation has changed since the day jetlines hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the passengers on Flight 93 gave their lives to save countless others. But then, I had to run across this Tenth Anniversary blog post from NYTs, Paul Krugman.
The Years of Shame
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.
What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.
“Years of Shame”? Mr. Krugman has exhibited an unconscionable moment of shame for which he should forever be embarrassed. As you can see, he is as cowardly as the terrorists themselves… a hateful hit and run on a day of remembrance and mourning, demonstrating that he, himself, is guilty of the very accusations he dares to level at others.
Bless the responders who grapple daily with memories, nightmares and health problems.
And to our troops, who still fight valiantly on, my heartfelt thanks.
More here
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Unreal. So Obama is a Neocon given his wars and his continuation of Bush’s wars.
Krugman is such an ass. Of course the left will and has remained strangely silent on this issue.
Krugman is an out of control liberal worm and his comments are far less than even believeable!! What a worm this guy is!! Let’s be clear, it was Muslims who killed innocent Americans on 9/11 and it was Muslims who celebrated in the streets on the souls of innocent Americans on 9/11 10 years ago and they once again display their absolute disgrace as humans by demostrating again today. To all Muzzies, I HATE you for killing Americans!! Prove me wrong before you get all wired up with bombs again!!
It is good to see so many photos that can affect the viewers as strongly as these get to me.
Our local church invited a local Navy retiree who was in the Pentagon that day.
He helped others out even as he suffered smoke inhalation and a few burns.
(For those who claim it was a bomb not a plane, he tells of some smoke clearing at one point and seeing a few airline chairs with decapitated passengers buckled in them.)
Krugman cannot separate in his PC, multicultural mind what happened in the intervening years after 9/11 from the actual attacks on 9/11/01 which are being commemorated today.
What a sloppy mind.
I guess he is also unable to separate the attack at Pearl Harbor (and our glass bottomed memorial there) with all of what happened during WWII and afterwards?
What brain-impairing habit causes this particular type of time frame blindness?
The New York Times will soon become a government supported propaganda organ like PBS. It is in a financial free fall because of losing credibility and adhering to political bias rather than news. At least when it becomes a taxpayer supported political propaganda bureau, it will be able to claim a measure of dignity once again. Since no one expects honesty or unbiased reporting from a legitimate government supported propaganda machine like PBS or NPR.
While former leaders were involved with ceremonies, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked the anniversary by repeating the conspiracy theory that the attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. as a pretext for war.
And another former world leader long-serving former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad who was in power in Malaysia at the time of the attacks, says Arab Muslims are incapable of carrying out the 9/11 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3 000 people.
Seems Krugman is taking sides with his new readership demographic.
It was the actions of the hundreds of Todd Beamer’s that gove me hope on Nine-Eleven. The Todd Beamer’s who reassured me that basic American values had not changed, had not been destroyed. When America needed heros, the Todd Beamers gave us heros. I am honored to live in a country that could produce so many Todd Beamers. I am proud of the Todd Beamers. It is the Paul Krugmans who give me shame. As Mark Steyn noted, Nine Eleven was both Pearl Harbor and Dolittle’s Raid.
@David Lentz, your astute observation, and spot on message as to how the Paul Krugman’s are so diminished by the Todd Beamers in this nation is nothing short of inspirational itself.
I think Krugman’s completely right that conservatives know this they just can’t admit it.
The only person who really gets to complain about this characterization is the one who wrote that article that time calling out Rudy. You know, that time he was banking 9/11 checks over and over and over as his meal ticket and riding the deaths of 3000 people as his only political capital, chargining $9.11 a plate at fundraisers and such. That time someone called him out on that most vile, naked profiteering.The one told him to STFU and go away considering there were foreign despots who’s reaction to 9/11 was less crass.
Was that you? Anyone you know? There a reason this vomit worthy behavior got a pass. If shame wasn’t it, well then it’s a mystery that still needs explaining.
@Torque: You have no idea what you are talking about. Your blind hatred and ideology ensures that you will never understand the impact of that day, or of the leadership given in the aftermath.
You are a sad little person and I pity you for your inability to honor the fallen innocents by putting away your agenda for even one day.
God take pity on you.
Where I live there are various roads, hill tops, historic and scenic sites where you can look out at the skyline of New York. In the many years the Towers have been up, and while driving down certain roads and highways I could not ‘help myself from looking out” to see if I could see the towers in the distance… standing tall and proud, a symbol of my America….
I have pictures with the towers as a back drop. I used to roller blade in the plaza and bike around the towers, ate lunch there several times, made sure I got a seat on the plane where I could see them when we took off….went to the top and looked out….. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that one day they would be gone…
After 9/11 I could barely force myself to look, at the empty space where the Towers once stood, it was very emotional for many years. I did not even want to go to the City because of the grief and emptiness I felt. I know there are many Americans who feel deeply about the murderous attack on the World Trade Center, but, the loss of my fellow Americans, our icon and the grief of it all seems more so when it is so close to home…
I am glad today I never gave up any opportunity to look into the distance and ” see if I could see the towers”….
The bravery of those on Flight 93 will never be forgotten. I cannot imagine their fate on that day, their spirit is what makes me Proud to be an American…and the brave men and women lost at our Pentagon….God Bless them all…
P.S. The picture of NY that is posted is beautiful. This is what I now see when I look toward the skyline of NY in the distance…
@Common Sense: it was Muslims who killed innocent Americans on 9/11
But it wasn’t Iraqi Muslims. No one in Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. You do remember that, don’t you? The grief and rage over 9/11 was hijacked by neocons who wanted to invade Iraq for reasons that had nothing to do with 9/11.
Most people have noticed this by now.
woof… such talking points, Continental Op.
First of all, the mission of regime change in Iraq has been US policy since Clinton’s enactment of The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. That bill passed unanimously in the Senate, and only 38 opposed in the House. 10 of them were Republicans and 27 were Democrats. Needless to say, it was overwhelmingly a bipartisan support of the policy of removing Saddam Hussein. Thus the reason why the AUMF in 2002… with 23 “whereas” phrases there dealing with justification for Saddam’s removal… also had bipartisan support. Passed Senate 77-23, and the House 296-133 (3 not voting).
Therefore it’s revisionist history to suggest that regime change in Iraq was a “neocon” driven event and tremendously disingenuous of you to refuse to recognize that is was not only a Democrat POTUS and party quest, but that they aided handily in implementing that regime change. So if “most people” have “noticed” this, it’s because they are also clueless to even recent historic events. Perhaps now you can stand taller, and welcome being more educated in fact.
Oh yes, the US didn’t attack Iraqi Muslims. It removed Saddam Hussein, and aided “liberated” Iraqis (like the Clinton enacted legislation mentioned above said…) in becoming the Arab democracy they are today. Needless to say, they are in far better shape for quality of life than under Saddam… except for Saddam’s privileged powerhouses who bolted to better radical regimes instead.
@MataHarley: Thanks Mata, I just got in after a long day and was about to take Continental Op to the woodshed, but you saved me the trouble!
LOL, it never fails that just about anything that comes up is managed to be labeled “Bush’s fault” by the left. One wonders how the left got along before Bush was in office…