From the beginning to the end (relatively speaking), it’s been messy: no time to prepare, to plan it out and to execute flawlessly.
Todd Beamer might have planned his family’s Roman Holiday to the teeth, in the days leading to 9/11 and to not miss that fateful flight (UA-93), but only to ACT and act decisively, boldly and sacrificially (in the interests of others’ “Geater no man than he who died for others”) when his Newark-SF flight was taken over and turned into precision-guided missile by four terrorists.
He had bought team shirts for his two sons (one daughter on the way – Morgan Kay Beamer – combo of Todd’s and Lisa’s middle names). I am sure like Beamer, Biden while mourning the loss of his son Beau, would never have thought some day, he would put the other bookend to the forever war.
America (up to 70%) and the world (many in Kabul) are tired of war, violence and conflicts.
Those who think waging wars and planting explosives is the way to solve problems know nothing about pain and loss.
I don’t want to write on to “educate” them.
They have been down the deep end, with rote- recitation of the distorted and dark interpretation of the Koran, of the myopic translation of the Old Testament’s God of Vengeance.
A lot of people intentionally and wilfully profiting from wars and the staging of wars. Hope they sleep well at night.
But the Lisa Beamers of the world, the Beau Bidens of the world are paying stiff prices (and interests to balloon up to 6.5 Trillion per Kennedy School of Government at Harvard) for our continued way of life, of stuffing those Costco carts, and of spraying caramel atop supersized Starbucks cups.
Meanwhile, the sleeper-terrorists continue to order pizzas and call girls at the expense of their “sponsors”, oil and drug pushers, to stir up troubles (see Perfect Soldiers).
They paid by cash, dropped out of Architectural school in Hamburg (Atta) and got their wings from a Sarasota’s flight school. While Bush sat in Sarasota baby’s chair to listen to a class reading – lesson learned from Dan Quayle….”dont’ go up to the board ” – to avoid misspelling.g. “potato” (before auto-correction), the terrorists positioned themselves – first-class “Champagne?” – to storm the cockpit above 30,000 feet, using only flights full of fuel and box cutters for weapon.
Later on, they improvised, and we now have to take off our shoes (and some day, our undies – the Underwear bombers).
Damn them. Without the Beamers’ of the world, we would have seen our 2 F-16’s dent down UA – 93 (at the time on course for the White House, where our Angler was hiding in the WH basement, taking orders from POTUS – on Airforce One, the only plane on the sky). And if they missed, it would have been a self-inflicting scenario UNIMMGINABLE that loomed much larger than today’s Kabul (with American allies’ body parts caught and later found in C-17’s take-off wheels).
Beau Biden broke his father’s heart ….I remember “Run, Biden run”, but he was deep in loss and pain. And that grief and delay gave us today’s POTUS who not only has ample of empathy, but also decisiveness and leadership (not “Infinite Justice, doing the Lord’s work, eye-for-an-eye).
How long more can we drag on? Are we to listen to the Rices’ of the world at Standford (more time… more time). Or are we taking a lesson from Steve Jobs (stay hungry, stay curious) at same school commencement speech.
Beamer got nothing to lose (as the plane made an U turn toward D.C.). Biden got nothing to lose. Steve Jobs got nothing to lose. It’s their loved ones, the survivors of flight(s), of war and of waste, of loss and pain that have to live on in grief.
Yes, the haunting eyes of Kabul (see my other blog), the unintended consequences of an ill-conceived war footing, venturing into the unknown unknowns.
Those architects of war always live on to write memoirs and live off their royalties e.g. In Restropect…. It’s those who self-immolate (a Quaker – burning at the steps of the Pentagon – or plunging themselves into the side of it in a Jihadist war -in both cases, paying the stiff price: their own lives).
They are selling those memoirs on prime- delivery for fear the public will forget the Afghan war quickly, just as we have with Iraq, Vietnam, WWII and what not.
Then those parades get stale, the flags (made-in-China) get tossed, or stored next to next-year Holidays ornaments…America can’t wait to commemorate and celebrate, preferably the later …the Fourth and D-day…(sell the -American – dream) No one wants to wear a coat, standing in freezing cold in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Beamer or Biden, our amnesia will loom large over Twin Towers or Trump Towers. Nevertheless, One-World Tower still stand, as testimony of resilience, and reinvention. And my daughter, her daughters will write on, will stay hungry and curious….with eyes on the prize.
The haunting eyes of Kabul staring into the distance, a thousand- yards stare watching a series of Phoenix…. rising from the ash of war.
I am a war refugee. I once had two sets of clothes…much less than what’s in my daughters’ campus closet today. And we both have a humble start in America.
God bless this land, our common dream of a life free of tyranny, terrorism and tax (just kidding. I need the third T to end my rambling and ranting.).
Thang Nguyen 555 