My mother was stuck in Mexico, having been scheduled to fly back later on the day of the attacks. My father’s girlfriend Sharon was actually in the air, coming back from Germany, and got diverted to Canada. Dad later drove to Detroit to get her.
I wasn’t sure the next day whether to go to work. Whether the office was open. Whether the city was open. And we were all pretty keyed up for like a whole month after that, where any emergency vehicle siren was upsetting, where guys were stationed on every street corner on top of Humvees and holding machine guns. National Airport didn’t open for more than a month.
I remember rallying behind President Bush. Heck, we all did. And Le Monde saying, Nous sommes tous Américains, remember? Where did that go?
I didn’t especially relish the idea of invading Afghanistan, but I didn’t especially oppose it either. I mean, the President certainly gave the Taliban every opportunity to give up Bin Laden. (Although I suppose that Bin Laden pretty muched owned the Taliban, so it’s not like they very much could do anything. But live by the sword, you know?)
I was in favor of going into Afghanistan. When the country is hit like that, it is an act of war, and those who are responsible must be rooted out, or the president isn’t doing his job. My huge complaint, of course, is that forces and money were diverted from the job at hand over to Iraq.
Honestly, I can understand how this president, or any president, would be mighty paranoid after a hit like that. My problem is that those who were present in the bunker when Bush got back to DC said that he was immediately demanding that connections be found tying this business to Saddam Hussein. That leads me to believe that this invasion was part of Bush’s agenda before 9/11.
I hope I live to be 90 so I can read what the historians say about all of this.