| September 11th, 2001 is a day that lives in infamy in the minds of Americans. It is the day that for many of them, marked a profound change in American society. On that day, 19 hijackers crashed commercial airline planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, 2977 people were killed, and over 6000 people were injured. In response to this attack, the American government overthrew the government of Iraq, and invaded Afghanistan. Over the next two decades of warfare, up to 1 million Iraqi and Afghani civilians have been directly killed as a result of the invasion and occupation of their country by Allied forces with thousands of US servicemembers killed or mutilated as a result of these pointless conflicts. The resulting PATRIOT Act passed by the Democratic and Republican parties represents a complete attack and negation of our constitutional rights as Americans. Just as the burning of the Reichstag in 1933 gave Hitler the opportunity to enforce the Enabling Acts, which destroyed democracy in Germany, so too did the attacks against the World Trade Center also enable the Republicrats to curtail democracy in our country. This 9/11 is dedicated to the victims of US imperialism and aggression. We as a country can never wash the blood from our hands. We can begin to fix our wrongs by pulling out all US soldiers from Iraq, and providing medical care to the thousands of veterans who returned with broken and scarred bodies and minds. We need to point out that there was another 9/11 in 1973, when right-wing forces supported by the CIA overthrew and executed the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende. The democratically elected Congress of Chile was dissolved and replaced with a military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. Tens of thousands of Chileans were executed or jailed. Journalist Alan Macleod pointed out that “Chile would be ruled by a gruesome fascist dictatorship for decades, the scars of which are still very fresh.” Chile today is just beginning to recover from the Pinochet dictatorship. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the CIA coup. It’s unfortunate, too many Americans are unaware of the CIA connection to the coup. As Macleod said, “people in the West…are largely insulated from the realities of empire thanks to a pliant media, which never shows you the effect of the bombs, sanctions, coups, etc.” Indeed, 9/11 was a traumatic event for the American people. Also, we must not forget that the corporate-elite-controlled in Washington D.C. commits daily great violence against innocent working people throughout the world. Today, September 11th, the Veterans’ Affairs Commission of the Party of Communists USA joins all Americans in remembering all those who died in New York and Washington D.C. But we also remember the daily victims of US imperialism. Peace can only be attained when no more bombs are dropped on exploited peoples. In Solidarity, Veterans’ Affairs Commission, Party of Communists USA |