The astounding events that took place in Washington D.C. yesterday, January 6, 2021 have dealt a far more devastating blow to the United States of America than the bloody attacks of 9/1.more than twenty years ago.
The number of deaths and physical destruction, of course, do not compare. But while Bin Laden’s followers managed to topple the twin towers, damage a portion of the Pentagon, and kill more than 3,000 people, what the insurgents and their allies in Washington accomplished was a horrific—perhaps ultimately fatal--wound to the very heart of American Democracy
They accomplished this through a two-pronged attack. First, the screaming mobs who overwhelmed the thin ranks of police, invading the Capitol, ransacking offices, forcing terrified legislators to postpone certifying a new president, and instead cower under their seats or in blockaded offices, some fearfully texting loved ones as if they were panicked students targeted by one of the crazed shooters who have invaded America’s schools over the past few years. The mob had also been egged on by former New York Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, who ironically made his name as a supposedly heroic leader in the aftermath of 9/11. Yesterday he conspired in a far more serious blow against America.
But while the wide-eyed, painted and tattooed insurgents took selfies as they rampaged through the Capitol, they had other far more powerful allies also working to demolish America’s democratic traditions from the inside: more than 130 Republican members of the House and at least eight American senators –most of them millionaires, two of them Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who actually clerked for the Supreme Court, parroting patently false charge that Trump had been robbed of victory—though those charges had been dismissed by more than forty different judges over the past few weeks. They turned what should have been a solemn ritual of American democracy—validating the election of the victorious presidential president---into a farce.
Despite the terrible damage of the 9/11 attacks, new soaring structures now stand again at the site of the World Trade Centre, the damaged outer corridor of the `Pentagon was repaired long ago, but does anyone think that the shameful, nightmarish spectacle that played out in the U.S. Capitol that was shown around the world---the violence of the mob, the craven cynicism of hundreds of American legislators--does anyone think those acts will not have consequences that will reverberate in America’s shattered political system for years? Indeed, their impact may never be reversed.
The most outrageous fact, however, is that the leader behind yesterday’s terrorist attack was not some fire-breathing foreign religious extremist obsessed with hatred of the United States, but the President of the United States himself. For years, he has been inciting his followers to violence, as he did again yesterday, then sat in the White House, tweeting encouragement to those domestic terrorists until he finally agreed—after frantic pleas by his own staff—to calm the water--for the time being. `’Go home,” he said, “We love you,”.
The bottom line-- in just four years, Donald Trump and his enablers have wreaked far more damage on America, than Osama Bin Laden and his minions would ever have dreamed of achieving. At best, the U.S. will take many years to recover; at worst, Trump’s ravages may prove fatal to America’s democratic experiment,
In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. made an enormous effort to track down and punish Osama bin Laden his followers.
But, despite all the brave words in the aftermath of the capital invasion, about prosecuting or removing Trump from office, Donald Trump, and the likes of Rudolph Giuliani, Ted Cruz, Fox News, and the army of elected representatives and government officials who enabled Trump over the years, will probably never be punished.
Indeed, there are those who still fear that the last four years will just be Donald Trump’s first term as president.