Now this is a potentially offensive post to those of an American nature, and I'm sorry if it is, but it's also my blog and how I feel.......
*hug* to all of you. (No, that's not the offensive bit!)
Yesterday was, all over the tv and the radio and the papers and the country, a 10 year memorial for 9/11.
Face book was full of reminding people to remember, or pointing out that this person or that person hadn't forgotten.
Remembering 9/11 is a good thing. Remembering people who died, realising the horror of their last moments, is a good thing. Especially, to my mind, paying tribute to those on the plane that downed itself. That group of people prodded buttock.
But what happened to America that day was a wake up call that she as a country wasn't impervious to terrorism.
Britain, specifically England, had known this for years. 25 years of what we gently and with typical English understatement, called "The Troubles".
1974 was when the first bomb that killed and injured people went off.
The last was in 2001.
In between times were the atrocities at Omagh, at Deal, at Eniskillen, at Newry, and so many other places. In between times were pipe bombs, knee cappings, intimidation, and terror.
Now, I am not comparing the deaths of 11 at Eniskillen with the deaths of 2606 at the Twin Towers, nor the 125 at the less remembered Pentagon, but over the 25 years 3466 people were killed in "The Troubles."
I'm not saying that it was worse for us. It just.... was. It was what it was.
But how many of those deaths can be laid at American feet? (Yes, this is the potentially offensive bit. I'm sorry, but it's true.)
Fundraisers for NORAID, for the American Ireland Fund, even down to hat passers in bars across the country raised massive amounts of money for Sein Fein, who *are* the IRA. Those Americans with a fondness for The Old Country, with a need to go Back To Their Roots, are just as responsible as those who raise money for the Taliban. Clinton's decision to get politically involved had more to do with reaching the the Irish-loving voters in his own country than with a need for peace in beleaguered Belfast.
The 2711 deaths in Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began, are a sign that because it was America that was attacked, we all got together to address the Taliban threat. But when England was under threat, for 25 years, we were told, by the Americans, that we should give in to them, and our attackers were supported by them. Yesterday, Obama said, in the midst of an excellent speech, that the past 10 years had shown that America does not give in to fear. And yet American expected, wanted, and fundraised for Britain to do just that thing.
Now, the world is a different place then to now. I'm not sure, I don't know if the IRA fundraisers still operate to such a level, although I know that America's political emphasis has, of necessity, shifted away from us and is on their own problems.
I do know that I joined the silences yesterday, that I remembered the dead, and also those injured who live with their memories daily, and those children who, like the AC, had a daddy or stepdaddy or mummy or step mummy who went to work like they always did, and never came home. I do know that without 9/11, my life would have been very, very different, and one day I'll explain why.
But yesterday was also caused a change in attitude for America, about them taking terrorism seriously, and for me, whilst I thoroughly despise anyone who uses the innocent to prove their own point, that has to be seen as a good thing.
*hug*
Please don't be too offended.
