911

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York City. There will be memorials and tributes, and it will be very difficult for the thousands who lost loved ones. For most of us, it is at a distance and does not not create sorrow or grief, but just perhaps a longing for the way things were 11 years ago. There were many knee jerk reactions by the leaders of all nations at the time, and unfortunately those actions have had a profound effect on our lives in many ways that we do not even blame on that incident.

The purpose of terrorism is not to overwhelm, but to undermine, and in that sense, the attack was successful. We have given up many civil liberties in exchange for a perception of safety. Do you remember colour coded terrorist alerts or suspicious paper bags in hallways or garbage cans before 911?  How about airport security or fear of anyone that even looks Muslim? Our governments are spying on us more than ever before and do we complain? We now take for granted the excessive scrutiny we endure while crossing the border for a bit of weekend shopping.

Another and bigger tragedy is the 4,683 US soldiers, 100,000 soldiers and citizens of Iraq, and many more Canadians and others who lost their lives fighting a war that in the end will only accomplish what Iran has wanted for many generations, and that is Iraq out of the way for control of the Gulf.

Brown University recently did a "Cost of War" study for the decade and came up with the figure of  $4 Trillion. So we can conclude that even our financial woes are in great part to be blamed on 911. War is for the most part, a very unproductive undertaking, and even more so when it is done with borrowed money.

I am afraid that we have let the terrorists win this one. It is difficult to imagine how they could have done us more harm than what we did to ourselves in reaction to their attack. Much more than they had hoped for, I'm sure.