9/11 Was Just The Opening Act

I remember sitting down with a cup of tea and turning on CNN. Smoke was coming from one of the World Trade Center buildings and the news commentary was confused.

There was speculation about what had happened. News people were talking to each other and nothing informative was being said. I watched and then I saw a plane come into view and turn into the second tower.

I knew immediately that something horrific and deliberate was happening. I didn't have to listen to the audio. I knew.

I remained rooted to the TV all day. I never got out of my pjs. I watched the towers come down. I saw the people jumping to avoid the flames. I saw the people running and covered in ashes.

Until that moment, the most traumatic news moment in my lifetime was the assassination of JFK. That changed things. Government was never the same after that. It was hard to trust the government and Nixon made that painfully clear.

I wasn't alive for Pearl Harbor. I can only imagine what is was like, but I can only imagine what it was like after experiencing 9/11. I never felt totally vulnerable before.

I had lost trust in the government and was cynical. I had disdain for politicians. I saw political corruption as the norm. When George W. took us into Iraq it just reinforced my disdain. When the economy crumbled, I thought we might be witnessing the end of the United States as I knew it growing up.

Obama changed all that for me. He brought hope and optimism. It was like we were given a reprieve. I began to feel confidence and trust in our government.

My hope and optimism lasted 2 years. After the midterm elections, the Republican Party came back with a vengeance. Congress literally stopped functioning and we experienced 6 years of congressional sabotage.

Despite all that, Obama managed to lift the country from the verge of economic depression to economic recovery and stability. The auto industry was saved. The housing market was revived. The financial industry was solvent.

Obama got nothing from Congress. What he did, he did by strength of character and intelligence. He was not a panacea for everything that was wrong. He was hamstrung and some things went terribly wrong in our foreign policy.

Syria turned the Middle East into a hellish nightmare that went far beyond the stupidity of W's invasion of Iraq. The invasion of Iraq had destabilized the Middle East and Syria was the ultimate catastrophe resulting from that destabilization.

Iran also thrived after the destabilization of Iraq. It rose almost unopposed in political and military power. Something was rising out of the ashes of the Middle East. The invasion of Iraq let loose a demon that had been contained and restrained since World War II.

While the United States was traumatized and fumbling to find its way, Russia was taken over by a criminal enterprise headed by Vladimir Putin. Russia is no longer a political state. Russia is organized crime elevated to an unprecedented international level and operating under the guise of a sovereign nation.

Putin invested in the chaos in the Middle East and in our chaos in the United States. Putin's agents were everywhere sowing chaos and confusion and violence. Putin was buying opportunists across the globe. Putin was buying people who were willing to betray their countries in exchange for profit.

Putin was playing the long game. It takes time to infiltrate a political economic entity like the United States. It takes years and years. You have to find and cultivate traitors. You have to compromise them and bring them under your control.

Putin worked to destabilize Europe. NATO was and is a thorn in his side and the only way to neutralize NATO is to break up Europe. We saw the beginnings of that with Brexit.

On the home front we saw the infiltration and eventual takeover of the Republican Party by an alliance of political opportunists, racists, religious zealots, political action groups, and traitors.

To a much lesser extent we saw an infiltration of the Democratic Party that has manifested itself in extreme leftists who have mobilized under the rubric of the Antifa.

9/11 was the opening act either by design or happenstance for the rise of an international Russian criminal organization headed up by Vladimir Putin.

Putin needs to dismantle the EU to dismantle NATO. He needs to destroy the United States as a cogent, coherent political force because the United States is the most powerful country in the world and it has repeatedly stopped fascist, totalitarian states dead in their tracks.

We are in the midst of total war with Russia. Russia has won all the opening battles. Russia contaminated our elections. Russia has perfected the dissemination of disinformation and false news. Russia has seized control of our Executive Branch and much of the GOP leadership. Russia is our enemy and Russia has been having its way with us.

Our allies seem to be faring better with Russia. At the moment they have brought Russia's infiltration of Europe to a halt and are slowly expunging Russian influence from European politics.

We have a lot of ground to reclaim and a lot of catching up to do. Our fate seems to be in the capable hands of Robert Muller and Eric Schneiderman. They represent our front line in confronting Putin's criminal Russian enterprise.

We are a nation of laws. If we cannot defeat Putin with our own laws we are a nation no more. The battle is engaged and Muller and Schneiderman are facing off with Putin's prefect, his proxy here in the United Sates.

Holy Moly!