As I drove my oldest daughter to work Monday, Sept. 10, 2001, we discussed her upcoming marriage to a guy then in the Navy stationed in Virginia.
She was concerned about his safety being in the military service.
Even after seven years, I remember the reply: “He’ll be okay, he’ll be fine — unless there’s a war.”
Less than 24 hours later, there was indeed a war.

Now today 84 months later, plus a day, my daughter’s marriage has ended (lasted less than five tumultuous years), but that before-mentioned war is still booming, booming away.

Nasty day, that day, Sept. 11, 2001, but what has happened since might even be worse.
The attacks were a giant emotional bang, and not just for US peoples, but the world over.
Even the Iranians offered condolences, the-then President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami saying “I condemn the terrorist operations of hijacking and attacking public places in American cities, which have resulted in the death of a large number of defenseless American people.”

And PTSD may not be just for combat veterans.
Yesterday it was reported the 9/11 attacks more than just jarred a lot of people:

• New data from a public health registry that tracks the health effects of 9/11 suggest that as many as 70,000 people may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the terrorist attacks.
  The estimate, released Wednesday by New York City’s Department of Health, is based on an analysis of the health of 71,437 people who enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry.
  They agreed to be tracked for up to 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the study was based on answers they volunteered about their health two and three years after the attack.

Decider George’s antics have cost the US and world a great deal.
Arrogant incompetence fused with a delusional world view has created an even more dangerous environment than prior to the WTC, Pentagon and Flight 93 horrors.

The last seven years — in excited words of Jon Stewart — has been nothing more than one giant clusterfuck.

First this from Reuters this week via WireDispatch:

• “I’m not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in sobering testimony before the House Armed Services Committee nearly seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime following the Sept. 11 attacks.
  Mullen said he was already “looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region” that would cover both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

And this today in ArmyTimes:

• Afghanistan was the launching pad for al-Qaida’s terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
  In response, U.S. forces invaded in October 2001 and drove the Taliban out of power in a matter of weeks.
  Once derided as a ragtag insurgency after the fall of their regime, Taliban fighters have transformed into a fighting force advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks.
  Suicide and roadside bombs have turned bigger and deadlier than ever.

An excellent comment/wrap-up of the past seven years (or more) by Muhammad Cohen appeared this morning at Asia Times Online.
The gist is an overview of the before-mentioned clusterfuck.
A couple of snippets:

• But when they entered office, the Bush people downgraded the Clinton administration’s fight against al-Qaeda that included cruise missile attacks on targets in Somalia and Afghanistan.
  The Bush people demoted the chief counter-terrorism adviser to the National Security Council. Condoleezza Rice, and reportedly George W Bush, saw the August 2001 national security briefing memorandum entitled “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States” and dismissed it.
  “It wasn’t something that we felt we needed to do anything about,” Rice told the 9/11 Commission.
  So America got hit again, in the very same spot where al-Qaeda first struck.
  Remember that old expression: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
  …
  The Iraq invasion distracted the US military and the world from the real fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
  It also pre-empted providing Afghanistan with the political and infrastructure foundations needed to create a modern nation.
  Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden remains at large, and al-Qaeda has orchestrated attacks on London, Madrid and beyond that have taken hundreds of lives.

Cohen’s piece is worth a full read and can also be found here.

What the shit happened?
Decider George switched commodes that’s what happened.
In late fall 2001, the war president changed wars.
In one of Bob Woodward‘s earlier Decider George books, “Plan of Attack” in 2004, it was revealed the move started toward the ultimate of all ultimate goals: Iraq.
Of course, without finishing up in Afghanistan first:

• On Nov. 21, 2001, 72 days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bush directed Rumsfeld to begin planning for war with Iraq.
  “Let’s get started on this,” Bush recalled saying.
  “And get Tommy Franks looking at what it would take to protect America by removing Saddam Hussein if we have to.”
  He also asked: Could this be done on a basis that would not be terribly noticeable?

And what did Tommy have to say about that shit?

• “They were in the midst of one war in Afghanistan, and now they wanted detailed planning for another? G–damn. What the f–k are they talking about?”

Jackboot John McCain was right there about the same time hollering his lying ass off:

• Within a month he made clear his priority.
  “Very obviously Iraq is the first country,” he declared on CNN.
  By Jan. 2, Mr. McCain was on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea, yelling to a crowd of sailors and airmen: “Next up, Baghdad!”

If Jackboot John and Earmark Sarah are elected in November — the mother of all clusterfucks.