Heroes and Cowards

Just a warning this opinion will probably upset just about everyone and cost me 100 followers on twitter but I can not hold back any longer. I’m not going to worry about spelling or grammar so if those things bother you sorry.

Yesterday was the anniversary of 9/11 and we saw all kinds of ceremonies and while originally I was annoyed with all the hoopla someone pointed out that it’s for the families and friends of people lost. After this was pointed out I looked at them in a different light and can respect most of the ceremony. It was a day to honor the true heroes of that horrific attack 10 years ago like the firemen, police, and the people in the building who helped others like Welles Crowther who lost his life while returning and helping others find their way out. He wasn’t a first responder or being paid to help others but did it because he believed it to be the right thing to do. Then you have the story of the people on flight 93 who gave their own lives to save what could have been thousands more, normal people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their fellow countrymen. These normal people, the first responders and the military are true heroes and should be celebrated every day of the year not just as an anniversary to a horrible event.

With a few exceptions politicians are not heroes, but there are a few like John McCain, John Kerry, Allen West to name a few. When called these men put their lives on the line for their country and while I may question your politics I will NEVER question your patriotism.

This brings me to my beef with the day, on this day to remember heroes 3 men are always mentioned. These 3 men are George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Rudy Guliani all men who where in power and all who are treated as “heroes”. This will upset a lot of people but I do not consider any of these men heroes, in fact when called to defend their country in Vietnam both Dick Cheney and George Bush passed at the chance. Dick Cheney has been quoted as saying he “had better things to do”. On September 11^th 2001 President Bush was reading books to children and after being told we where under attack he sit there for several minutes not knowing what to do, Rudy G. was in New York but only came out to see the damage after the attacks where done and Dick Cheney was in hiding the whole time.

These three men did nothing on the day that could be considered heroic but took no time turning the tragic event into a political football they could punt around as they needed it. They started the rumor that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks on America and used the momentum that caused to invade the country under the guise of “looking for weapons of mass destruction”. In march 2004 after thousands of Americans had been killed President Bush went to a dinner and made jokes about the invasion, a true insult to the people who gave their lives in his war. As the election approached every time it looked like the Mr. bush was about to lose to a true war hero in John Kerry he would have the terror alert raised to remind people of the horrible attacks and help himself in the polls.

9/11 is all these men have, they have not accomplished anything since then and they used the event to push their political agenda and wars which have cost thousands of American lives and tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. You men did nothing to prevent this event even though we have found out since you where warned about a dozen times of a possible attack, you have used the attacks for your own political gains and finally when you had a chance to serve your country you refused. This does not make you a hero it makes you an opportunist.

I say this not knowing how I would react to the events or if I would join the military so I myself don’t know if I would be a hero or coward. But I will say you 3 have a small chance to redeem yourselves - you allowed the first responders to clean up the trade center before knowing what damage it would cause, for the first time in your life be on the right side of an issue and tell your party to support the first responders and give them the health care they so need.