It was a Tuesday. I took the morning Amtrak from Rhinecliff to NY-Penn station From there I rode the subway to Central Park South. It was a freelance gig at Loreal. After we were evacuated, I never went back to that gig, or that building. The sky was an incredible blue. To this day, when I see that color of the sky, it has a name. Nine Eleven Blue.

Long before that Tuesday, I was at work. It was a Friday. I was 25 years old and at my first 'office job'. My supervisor got off the phone with his wife -- she worked at the World Trade Center. Something happened and she was being evacuated. My supervisor was doing all he could to keep it together. There were no smart phones or even a TV at our office. Phone communication was all there was back then. That day?

February 26, 1993. That afternoon I came home and turned on the news. CNN was around for about 13 years at that point. In the next days and weeks-- leading into months and years, I learned about this terror group called Al Qaeda. As a result if that fateul Friday, I started listening to news pretty voraciusly. NPR was programmed on my drive time radio into and out of work. CNN would be a portion of my evening TV.

Sometime in 2001 maybe the spring or summer, I vaguely recall reports that this terror group was still a grave danger to our national security. It was basically white noise at this point. So much was going on in my life back then. That report and a particular name snapped right back into my consciousness a day or two after the second attack on the World Trade Center.

Osama Bin Laden. The report I heard mentioned Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. Once it was confirmed by various news reports I can tell you that I was supportive of our country going into that country to defeat and yes, kill, those who brought this trauma and violence on our nation. At that point, I was not aware of the history of the country, known to some as the 'Graveyard of Empires'. I didn't know the complexities of the history of the region.

20 years later, I know more now. Not as much as some and a lot more than many. We were told in 2001 that we would be going after the people who attacked us. We were told 'Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.' We were told one thing and we never left because the Bush Administration decided to turn our invasion in a nation building endeavor. As we all know and awful lot of people got rich off the blood of dead people in the region.

The NeoConservative group, co-founded by Bill Kristol, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was behind it all. PNAC no longer exists, but its mission statement does.

I remember how we got to the summer of 2021 and the fall of Kabul. It's simple. They may have prettied up the mission using catch phrases like 'Moral Clarity' and 'Securing America's Greatness', but what they were doing is enriching themselves by trying to force their own version of democracy by the barrel of a gun. The thing is, Afghanistan has existed for centuries. It has never wanted to be a democracy, it is a sad and hard stated truth.

The Master of War are to blame for this. I remember this as I fluctuate between anger and heartbreak.

I guess this is just a long way to say, We told you so -- and it brings me no joy. I remember my history.

&
Raine