Tears

Why do I still cry every time I see footage of 9/11?

What happened that brilliant blue day that seared itself so deeply into my being?
The answer, I think, is elemental, almost trite: The attacks were the embodiment of man's inhumanity to man. It wasn't the act of a lunatic, like Virginia Tech. It wasn't an act of nature, like Katrina. It was a group of men -- men blinded by religion -- deciding to kill thousands of their fellow human beings.

I think of the beautiful blend of humanity inside the World Trade Center. I think of the humbling bravery of the firefighters as they began their ascent up the towers, bravery captured in a heroic, life-affirming documentary by Jules and Gedeon Naudet. I think of a world weeping with America. And I cry.

Nobody has more cynically capitalized on 9/11 than George Bush. And now he's again using 9/11 to justify his attack on Iraq, a grotesque distortion of history. Maybe Bush's delusions allow him to wash the blood off his hands, to vanquish the angry ghosts that surely pound at his windows every night, to wipe dry a billion tears shed by the shattered living. Or maybe he's really that ignorant. Maybe he hasn't read study after study -- some by his own government -- that say Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

At least the press -- even the establishment press -- is calling foul this time. Here's what Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote this week (in bold):

President Bush is at odds with the American public and a restive congressional majority over the Iraq war, and even some Republicans talk about imposing new requirements that could trigger a troop withdrawal.

It's time to play the Qaeda card.

In a speech about Iraq yesterday morning at the Willard Hotel, the president mentioned Osama bin Laden's group -- 27 times. "For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," Bush told a group of construction contractors.

Never mind all that talk about sectarian strife and civil war in Iraq. "The primary reason for the high level of violence is this: Al-Qaeda has ratcheted up its campaign of high-profile attacks," Bush disclosed.

The man who four years ago admitted "no evidence" of an Iraqi role in the Sept. 11 attacks now finds solid evidence of a role in Iraq by the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"I don't need to remind you who al-Qaeda is," Bush reminded. "Al-Qaeda is the group that plot and planned and trained killers to come and kill people on our soil. The same bunch that is causing havoc in Iraq were the ones who came and murdered our citizens."

Yes, all indications are that Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. But it has been drawn there by the American invasion. To insinuate that the United States is in Iraq because of Al-Qaeda is another lie by a government that stole the White House in 2000 and has since redefined arrogance.

I wonder if Bush cries when he thinks about 9/11. He often says his view of the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001. Rightfully so. But, because of his fundamental ignorance, he failed to give us a reasonable plan to fight the terrorists. Never in its history was the United States more justified than in its attack on the Taliban and, by extension, Al-Qaeda. The world was poised to bond in common cause. Then came Iraq. Then came hundreds of thousands of deaths. Then came tears of a different kind -- tears of rage at a senseless war, tears of sorrow over lives wasted by misinformed American aggression.

I'm glad I cry when I see the Towers imploding, when I see the courage of those firefighters, when I see the British play the "Star Spangled Banner" at the changing of the guard in London. It reminds me that every life is profoundly important. And that reminds me of why Iraq is so wrong.