9/11/2009 (Eight Years Later)

Today's main post has nothing to do with the markets. If that's what you're looking for than I would stop right here.

In 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and attacked across a wide front throughout the Pacific. It took us and our allies three years & just under eight months to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Of course by that time most of Japan's major cities had been reduced to rubble through a massive air bombing campaign. If that hadn't worked, the allies were prepared through two operations (Olympic & Coronet) to invade the Japanese home islands. Allied casualty estimates ranged from 400,000 to two million. General George Marshall thought the allies would sustain over a million casualties and the Japanese civilians 3-5 million.

After the war the main surviving perpetrators of Pearl Harbor were captured. Three of them including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo were sentenced to death. Tojo was executed 12/23/1948. It is estimated that the Japanese killed between 3 and 10 million civilians during World War II. Historians argue today as that war fades out of memory that in the late 1930's-early 1940's Japan had many grievances against the US. Some now look at the period and make the historical argument that perhaps Japan felt justified in the actions she took in the days of December 7-12, 1941. While I don't agree with that point of view, I believe that those making such an argument would agree that the United States was not at war with Japan on December 7, 1941.

2,386 Americans died at Pearl Harbor {half of these were on the Arizona. Another 1,139 were wounded. Thousands more died in the Philippines & other Pacific islands and strongholds in the ensuing months after Pearl Harbor.

On September 11, 2001 the United States was also at war with nobody. We mostly today remember the dead at the World Trade Center but we should not forget the dead at the Pentagon and those on United Flight 93 who died trying to take back control of their aircraft. 2,774 people died at the World Trade Center, over 400 of these were police and firefighters. They ran towards the fires while everybody else ran away. 42 people including the terrorists themselves died on Flight 93. Another 184 died at the Pentagon. Unlike Pearl Harbor, most were civilians. These numbers include the people on the airplanes as well. Like their compatriots on the ground, these people were spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents or sons and daughters. They started that day doing the mainly mundane routines that make up most peoples lives. In New York City, many of those people simply died when the planes hit the buildings or when the buildings imploded. Some were forced between burning and jumping.

Osama bin Laden was the man that is largely responsible for these attacks. One of the masterminds of this attack was Ayman al-Zawahiri. Bin Laden was sheltered in Afghanistan by the leader of the Taliban, Mohammed Omar. None of these men has ever been brought to justice. We are 8 years into this war. It is reported that we had an opportunity to capture bin Laden at the Battle of Tora Bora in Dec. 2001 but we let him slip through our grasp. We did capture one of the main planners of this event. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. . He was captured in March of 2003. He has never been brought to trial.

We are now locked into a great debate on what many call either the War on Terror or the Long War. Nobody it seems can decide on what is the right strategy for Afghanistan and we of course have our own problems at home with the economy. But it should not be lost on any of us that our original goals when we went into Afghanistan have not been met and it seems that our desire for justice has somehow been lost.

Of course we could look back on other precedents. Take this for example. . Lockerbie Scotland, 12/21/1988. 270 people died. Here there was ultimately one conviction although others were most certainly involved, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison. That didn't turn out so well. Here he is a few weeks ago being accorded a hero's welcome in Libya. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLyRFxMcNlc

Much ink has been spilled since 9/11/01. Truly many brave men have done great deeds in defense of their country and it is possible that given the part of the world we are dealing with that perhaps the best has been done given what we've been willing to throw into the fight.

But the fact remains that the perpetrators of these events are still beyond the bounds of the law. There are those of us who can debate all of the causes or reasons for why this might have occurred. It is likely that many in the Islamic world believe they have cause against those of us that reside in the West. But disputes should be settled either by diplomats or by soldiers. In general the targeting of noncombatants is considered a war crime.

Today we will again remember the dead of 9/11. I'm sure there will be some special about it on the History Channel if they're not to busy running another analysis of World War II. But the dead of 9/11 and their families will still have no closure. Events of that time are rapidly being obscured by other events as history marches ever forward. However as much as we might in our own minds forget these dates our enemies never do. Today, along with 9/11 here are a few other events it seems we've forgotten but I'm pretty sure our enemies haven't:

1983-Marine Barracks Beirut. 299 American & French dead, 75 injured {Military}.1988-Lockerbie Scotland 259 dead {Civilians}
1993-World Trade Center Bombing {6 dead}
1993-Battle of Mogadishu, AKA Blackhawk Down: {18 dead, 73 wounded-all military}
1996-Khobar Towers, Khobar, Saudia Arabia {19 dead}
1998-Embassy bombing, Tanzania {11 dead, 85 wounded-most were local civilians)
1998-Embassy bombing, Kenya {212 dead, over 4,000 wounded again most were local civilians}
2000-USS Cole, Yemen {17 dead}
2002-Bali {202 dead, 240 injured}
2005 London {56 dead, 700 injured}