"...A date which will live in infamy" was originally coined by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his announcement to the nation regarding December 7, 1941, when American naval base, Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii was attacked by Japanese Mitsubishi "Zero" bombers.

September 11, 2001 is also a date which will live in infamy. Most of us can remember where we were when we heard the news of a large fire at the top of one of the World Trade Center Buildings. As we turned on the news, any channel actually, we sat in wonderment while the reporter admitted to not knowing what caused the fire, if something had accidently hit the building to cause the fire or if...gulp... the fire was caused intentionally.

 As I sat watching, simultaneoulsy looking at the clock to make sure I wasn't running late for work, I almost turned off the television when.... BOOM! A large commercial airplane slowly glided into the side of the World Trade Center building. A lump in my throat, I asked my boyfriend if he thought that was intentional. "I don't know, I hope not" is all he could say.

Needing to jump in the shower to get ready for my $7.50/hour job at Office Max, I wondered casually about the World Trade Center tower and knew in my heart that the World Trade Center accident was just that. 

 Office Max was a ghost town that day. A few patrons trickled in for returns, paper clips and notepads each asking "Did you HEAR what happened!?" "Yes, it's a shame" I would say until one woman asked the same resounding question, my reply the same, and said, "So you heard about the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania?" The plot thickens and my concern became real. WHY would a commercial airplane crash in a field in Pennsylvania, the SAME day an airliner accidently crashed into the World Trade Center, on the SAME day there was a fire there?

My second job was at Outback Steakhouse (yum,yum) and it became very obvious America was in shock. No one came in to eat. 45 minutes after the start of my shift, I was sent home with $10.00 in my pocket from my evening's work (An average night was $80-$100).

All of us employees were sitting around the bar, watching the big screens in disbeleif at the news coverage on the events of the day. It was clear to us now that the World Trade Center had, in fact, been ATTACKED! The planes were flown into the Center purposefully and the plane in Pennsylvania was headed for the Pentagon but overtaken by hero passengers when the hijackers' destination was revealed.

Speculation around the 9/11 attacks loomed in the 24/7 news coverage over the next few months.

George W. Bush initiated strict rules in airports (i.e. remove your shoes, please) immediately, sent troops to find Osama (Usama) Bin Laden in Afghanistan and set rules at Customs to make if difficult, even for Americans, to return to the United States. The USA PATRIOT Act was enacted.

The real question remained: Who did it and Why?

The question of motive had escaped me during these past 7 years. I had long ago given up on the answer until an assignment in my Political Science class led me to read a chapter explaining the motive.

Just as I had, many Americans assumed the jihad (the lower-case "j" in important: Upper case, Jihad, is the fight against inner turmoil in Islam) wanted to spread Islam to the world and announce the power of the jihad cause. This was not the case.

The motive for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York was to break Americans' spirits in hopes that they would convince leaders to withdraw American troops from Muslim areas and stop protecting the Jews. --That's it? This is all we had to do to thwart this attack? Stop policing a little piece of the world? Sounds easy enough!

Does it not seem that Bin Laden would have attempted to ask G.W. Bush to withdraw the troops? And when the American government declined we can assume Bin Laden threatened American lives. Did we think he was bluffing and caused this massacre ourselves? (Not us, our government)

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in hopes to pull American forces out of waters patrolling the Dutch Indies so that the Japenese could invade them.

The jihad attacked the World Trade Centers because we would not pull American forces out of Muslim areas.

So what is the answer? America... MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS and maybe we can save civilian lives.

Worth noting:

1 million American soldiers have been killed since, and including, the American Civil War (1861-1865)

The US PATRIOT Act: Requires inter-agency information sharing. Before 9/11, CIA, FBI etc... were not required to share intellegence with one another.

(credit: American Gov't and Politics Today. Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes. 2009)