Was It Real?
Or Was It Fake?
For those of a certain age, it may always be impossible to live through the eleventh day of September each year, without reflecting on that day in 2001.
This year, as the date approached, a song came to mind from around 2003 that, while certainly slickly produced, has perhaps not aged well —
In fairness to the artist—Darryl Worley—there is as much reason to suspect that he was caught up in the propaganda, as much or more than he was a purveyor of it. And in fairness to those who defend the Iraq War to this day, there is more complexity to it, at least than Have You Forgotten? would have us believe.
Apparently, when Have You Forgotten? was released as a commercial single in 2003, it stirred up a degree of controversy, especially given the rapidly fading national unity by the Spring of that year, and the rapidly growing polarization around the USA’s military adventure in Iraq. Questioned about this controversary on March 11, 2003 (eight days before the launch of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”) by Lou Dobbs on CNN, Mr. Worley said, “The song is not necessarily pro-war. That's not the reason we wrote the song. The song is pro-America. It's pro -- it's pro-military. But I don't necessarily think that it's a pro-war song.” Continuing, the singer shared that, “I think we have to move on and get past things, but I don't think it's good to forget things like this. I think we need to remember.”
Let us take Darryl Worley at his word, and let us remember exactly what happened, and what did not happen.
What Did Not Happen
An enduring, if half-forgotten gleam of pithiness about September 11th, which now seems impossible to trace, spoken by some forgotten character of the drama or at least its aftermath, runs something like, “The truth about 9/11…is that we may never know the truth about 9/11.” Who can truly say—besides God—that he knows the full and absolute truth about what happened?
Certainly, some things have been established as facts, in the court of public opinion, if not law. When it comes to these things, journalist James Corbett has done an amazing job of putting the pieces together to assemble a picture, even if it is hazy and incomplete, of what did happen. If you still cling to the official regime narrative, if you still deride anyone that doubts the official regime narrative, The Corbett Report features a series of documentaries that present documented, historical, facts. If you still cling to the narrative and deride 9/11 truthers, you should seriously consider entertaining the facts that Mr. Corbett presents. And if you still cling to the narrative, and still deride the “truthers”, do so in the knowledge that you are spitting in the face of the facts.
Or else, debunk what has just been referred to as facts, debunk the documentaries presented by The Corbett Report.
It is interesting, but to date…no one has. It is interesting, but the “debunkers” always seem to go after other targets rather than James Corbett. Perhaps a certain degree of this may be due to his low profile, but perhaps another aspect of it is this: it is unlikely that powerful people with enormous resources would go to the trouble of conducting a false flag operation and not have multiple, pre-planted, and contradictory controlled opposition figures whose job is to float conspiracy theories and patently false allegations under the guise of “trutherism” to 1) divide the people who seek the truth against each other, and 2) present easy targets for the so-called debunkers in the service of the regime. In this way, all 9/11 truth-seeking (including that of The Corbett Report) is tarred as bogus canardism by association, without having to actually be debunked, or even addressed.
In light of this, for all the excellence of the hours of documentary films The Corbett Report has released about what happened, perhaps the most valuable is a video that is less than 5 minutes long, that is dedicated to what did not happen. Titled “9/11 — A Conspiracy Theory” the genius of it lies in that, instead of presenting a counter-narrative to the regime’s account, or even debunking the regime’s account, the video simply presents the regime’s official account of September 11, 2001…in all its sheer and utter preposterousness.
In short, if you believe the official regime/government narrative, you believe something far more preposterous, absurd, credulity-straining, and frankly, insulting than anything in the most fevered-dream imaginations of the most tin-foil-hat characters (some of whom are probably controlled opposition, others simply overactive and ill daydreamers).
Just be aware of that.
And if you are willing to entertain that, and to prioritize Truth over your emotional attachments, then move on from that less-than-5-minute video to the other, more complex and deeper documentaries.
Of course, one might say in the spirit of a certain former Secretary of State, “What difference does it make?” — “What’s done is done, and there’s no point in spending time now, decades later, watching documentaries about it.” Leaving aside that people somehow find time to spend on web-surfing, shopping for things they don’t need, sportsball, and video games, this line of argument rings hollow. But if a reason is still needed, let us turn back to Mr. Darryl Worley of Have You Forgotten? — “I think we have to move on and get past things, but I don't think it's good to forget things like this. I think we need to remember.”
What Did Happen
If clinging to regime-sponsored narratives lies at one extreme of the memory of 9/11, then perhaps the other is clinging to cynicism. Certainly, there is plenty of grist for cynicism. From the brazenness with which 3,000+ people were slaughtered on a clear September morning, to the steadfast ostrich-behavior of the regime toadies, there’s enough grist for not only cynicism, but rage, and enough temptation to lead to despair.
No, the regime and its shills’ narrative of September 11th did not happen.
But some things did.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of police, medics, and average people rushed into an inferno, to do their jobs, and to give of themselves, so that others might live. People like William Rodriguez, the janitor who helped people trapped in the World Trade Center to escape (and later became a 9/11 whistleblower). Like Officer Kenneth Tietjen of the Port Authority Police —
On September 11th, Officer Tietjen heard the calls for help, commandeered a taxi, and drove to ground zero. Officer Tietjen rushed into the North tower, and rescued several people. When he emerged from the building, he and his partner realized that there was only one respirator left. Officer Tietjen smiled at his partner and said, “Seniority rules.” He then grabbed the respirator and rushed back into the tower—just before it collapsed.
Like Stephen Siller, who “had just left his firehouse, Squad 1 in Brooklyn, to play golf with his brothers,” but hearing on the radio scanner that the first tower had been hit, “strapped on 60 pounds of fire gear and ran almost two miles through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the burning towers…Stephen, a father of five, never made it home. He was one of the 343 FDNY members who died.”
These people did not know what the truth was about 9/11, at least not on that morning. They didn’t have time, being as they were, too busy laying down their lives and sacrificing themselves, in one of the most perfect images we can see of the reflection of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty in human beings. No greater love has man, than this.
If the regime narrative-shills dishonor the dead by attacking or even ignoring those like James Corbett who seek the Truth, then so do those who give in to despair, so do the cynics who dismiss everything as fake and gay. Some things are, but not self-sacrifice, and however much fakery there may have been—and may be to this day—around 9/11, the heroism and the valor that the heroes showed, and their sacrifices, were real and noble.
Honor them. Honor Truth. Remember.