The 9/11 Nostalgia Trip Has Already Started on Propaganda Village

http://blog.tsa.gov/2011/08/tsa-remembers-911-stories-from-our.html.

It's going to be a long & nauseating next 4 weeks...

 

Somebody wrote in response to JustSayin's comment "Thank you TSA for this touching rememberance of one of America's darkest days" (and after a couple of others disputed her comment), to the effect that:

JustSayin was correct in stating that 9/11 was one of this country's darkest days as it brought us:

The Patriot Act
Department of Homeland Security
TSA

As of this time, that comment hasn't been posted.

 

I well remember that day, and I little thought it would embroil us in, what 2 wars? 3? ten years later, and lead to the destruction of the constitution. But what do I know?

 

What's that mission, Bob? To molest and steal from the flying public?

 

Sadly, there are already 9/11 stories on the WaPo site (including, ironically, one bemoaning that the TV channels were going to be wall-to-wall 9/11 coverage for the next few weeks) and, even amidst the hurricane coverage, the NY Times has a few similar stories. At which point I gave up on US newspapers for the weekend. Long few weeks indeed.

 

I'm bracing for the week after next. I'm sure the TV and internet will be filled with 9/11 reminders.. TSA is here because of 9/11... We grope you because of 9/11, etc.....

9/11

9/11

9/11!!!

 

No disrespect meant to survivors and families of the victims, but I am so glad I am going to be ridiculously distracted over the next couple of weeks.

 

That's good content when commenting on these public disinformation ads. Seems that there have been a number of propaganda pieces lately and many of them don't have a comment section.

 

It's too bad that none of the TSA employee names were attached to those stories - it'd be nice to know which stories belonged to Sean Shanahan, Charles Henry Bennett, Thomas Gordon, Jr., Michael Arato, Randy Pepper, or any of the other hundreds of known criminals who work(ed) for the TSA.

 

I realize this is a travel site, and I understand the anti-TSA sentiment; however, I hope that other than TSA, the PATRIOT Act or even George Bush's political affiliation, that the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is a moment of somber reflection. Pretty difficult to post anything in this and other similar web sites without the discussion deteriorating into political diatribe (from either side of the aisle).

Being a retired soldier (and intelligence officer), I understand the violent nature of the 9/11 attacks. What makes this event particularly horrifying is that the thousands of people who went to work that day were not soldiers or freedom fighters or insurgents or revolutionaries. They were everyday people doing their everyday routine on a typical Tuesday morning whose lives were violently shaped for those who survived and tragically ended for those who died. I don't know if it is possible to prevent future occurrences. My military training and my intelligence background tells me that a determined attacker will succeed. At times, it's a matter of pure luck going either way whether the attack is a success or failure. For the most part, there's a certain calculus that makes attacks predictable and, to some extent, manageable or even preventable. Point is that attackers have the luxury of time on their side.

I guess there are different things that 9/11 brings to mind depending on different perspectives. When I was transferred to Germany during Desert SHIELD before it became Desert STORM, I remember arriving at Frankfurt and seeing German Polizei patrolling the airport with their MP-40 submachine guns at their sides. I remember thinking that was a sight I'd never see in the United States. A little over 10 years later, US Army Guardsmen were patrolling American airports with their standard issue M-16 rifles at their sides. And I recall in the two or three days immediately after 9/11 seeing US Air Force F-16 combat patrols flying over the city of San Antonio. I've seen US Air Force combat patrols in other parts of the world; I just never thought I'd see them flying over my own homeland.

So even though I've worked for TSA since rollout, I don't connect 9/11 with TSA or even airport security, for that matter. I see it as something that I and my professional colleagues had predicted as an eventual reality Americans would have to deal with on American soil.

 

You should be proud. You've helped Al Qaeda do exactly what they intended.

 

Would you have responded differently if you didn't know I worked for TSA?

 

Would you even be posting here if you didn't work for the Terrorist Support Administration?

 

Not with you anymore.

 

When I was living in Europe during the red brigades and bader meinhof era, I found the security and weaponry a bit disconcerting but got used to it quickly. I don't mind the extra focus on security now. But there are some costs we simply can't pay due to the damage wrought. Looking under everyone's clothes, feeling inner thighs, sex organs, butts without sufficient cause is damaging and galling given the plethora of very soft targets.

 

Those were tense times. I don't know what created more tension: the Baader-Meinhof gang or race riots on military installations. Seems like a different world.

 

Well, at least you're beginning to recognize that what you currently do is indefensible,

 

Is that a disemboweled cupcake?

Sick, sick, sick, ...

 

No. That's a Ding Dong.

 

Now Caradoc, TUG is not the proper venue for posting snack-cake snuff.

(Which is to say nothing of the fact that I'm now rather hungry.)