When it comes to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, most people reminisce in the moment, or from the moment forward. However, I find it more interesting to think from the present day back to 9/11/2001, to see how much has been accomplished since then... or lack, threof.


I can't help but wonder... how much safer are we today from a terrorist attack than before 9/11? If it's a great improvement, how long until we lapse back into the habits, attitudes, and policies that allowed the attack to occur in the first place --- as with Pearl Harbor, the Civil War, and the War of 1812 before it?

There are also some things I've noticed about the circumstances surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent wars that the Corporate Media apparently doesn't seem fit for print. And seeing as we stand on the 10th anniversary of that fateful day, I feel these facts need to be more widely-known;
- The Defense budget doubled in the mid-1980s just between two years, then doubled again between then and 2001 --- and they STILL didn't make us safe from a 9/11-sized attack. Since then, the same budget has TRIPLED (has the threat tripled). Yet, we have half the number of ships and aircraft as in the mid-1980s, and half the enlisted personnel.
- We've got no shortage of Flag Officers though, as their numbers in all the services have INCREASED since 1990 --- we have three Admirals for every ship!
- 60% of the US military's total manpower is stationed abroad, in 781+ bases on the soil of more than 50 countries. Most of these are isolated little garrisons of a few-dozen to 1000 personnel; how are we supposed to gather all of these back to the US in the event of a crisis that dwarfs 9/11?
- Adding to those 781 foreign bases are stupid little F-Troop garrisons, like the Manas "Air" Base;
http://www.g2mil.com/OBRAC.htm
- We've installed the owner of the world's largest Heroin ring into power over Afghanistan, and Tehran's right-hand-man into power over Iraq. Will we wait until that decision comes back to bite us in the ass before we remove them, like we did in Panama?
- None of the architects of 9/11 were in Afghanistan when we invaded, and they concocted the attack in the Philippines --- and some are still at large. Why haven't we invaded the Philippines the same way we invaded Afghanistan?
- Our *own intelligence* revealed that Bin Laden didn't know about the 9/11 attacks until he saw them happen on the news; so why did we make HIM Public Enemy #1?
- Al Qaeda's primary demand was the the US pull all it's troops out of Saudi Arabia... and we caved to that demand on August 26th, 2003.
- Al Qaeda was also a CIA creation, concocted to infiltrate and spy on other Islamic terror groups, train CIA agents and mercenaries as an "OPFOR" unit, and funnel men and equipment to Afghanstan to harass the Red Army. They just left Al Qaeda twisting in the wind after the Cold War, so it's hardly surprising that they turned against the US.
- The US goverment literally BRIBED the insurgents in Iraq into a brief quiescence, to help create a false media image of success for the Troop Surge. They did it *again* more recently in Afghanistan, and in both cases these bribes included giving the enemy FIREARMS. Think of the "Oil For Peace" fiasco, but with guns and cash replacing the oil.
- The US government promised no permanant bases in Iraq, and both Bush and Obama promised it personally;
1- http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.....bases-in-iraq/
2- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2498810.....nt-iraq-bases/
...but Obama went back on his word and did it anyway;
http://www.stripes.com/news/panetta.....sence-1.152633
- Remember the ECHELON system built in the Cold War to spy on the Russian, that the Clintonistas used to spy on EVERYONE, promising that would make the world a better place? It did nothing to warn us in advance of 9/11.

Looking into the recent past, I can't help but wonder if it's a mirror image of the immediate future... including the 9/11 attacks.