9/11: War On Terror?

I was in my early teens when I first visited New York. Like every tourist, we visited the World Trade Center. I remember trying to see the top of the building from the street. I remember the long queue to the elevator. And I clearly remember the second elevator. It was faster than an F1 car without the Gs. And the view from the top was fantastic. The roof was closed for some reason. This was in the early 90s.

Almost a decade later, I clearly remember the day of the 9/11 incident. It was the Nokia mobile phones era. I was on a train to Chennai when my dad called me. He said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center towers. The following day, we reached Chennai. It was all over the news. I spent the whole day in front of the Tv. I also remember emailing my friends in NY to see if they were safe. Few of them had sent pictures of the burning towers in our Yahoo Groups.

I did not lose a family member or a friend. But I felt that I had lost something. Perhaps, my childhood tourist experience had something to do with it. And even today, it is not a nice feeling. So, I have not watched any movie or documentary based on this incident because I watched a popular Tv host spend all her time (the following year), talking about trash which is more in the lines of Jerry Springer Show content.

As the Afghan crisis unfolds, many leaders said, "We gave the Afghan girls education, driving license,.. and the new regime will destroy 20 years of hard work." To me, that's a politician talking because, in their own country, educated women are not paid the same as their male counterparts.

The USA has fought several wars because it was about their ideology rather than anything else. From the fall of the USSR to this, it has always been about overthrowing a dictator/leader. Unfortunately, the same guns that they used for war are actually killing innocent school children. We have seen several images of African kids with assault rifles and we say, "African warlords are training kids to be soldiers". But in the USA, “soldiers” in plain clothes or school uniforms are killing the innocent.

Again, it is the war of ideas. And in this war, there is a casualty on both sides if guns are involved. Look at China, they used their factories and profits from that to push their global agenda! And hope the US leaders understand that they cannot fix all the problems in the world with their guns.

“Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath the mask there is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof”.

PS: During my corporate life, every year on 9/11 I would wear this tie.

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