Chicago NATO Protests

On May 16, 2011 protestors began marching in Chicago (prior to the 2 day NATO summit); many wanted NATO disbanded and/or the wars ended. Three Florida men with an arsenal of weapons were arrested on May 16 and released but on May 18 an undercover cop foiled their plot to use Malakoff cocktails on 4 police stations so the police would be distracted when they took the Mayor’s home, financial institutions and Obama’s campaign headquarters. The protests were relatively peaceful however, on May 19 the hacker group Anonymous took down city websites and rallied other hackers to fire upon the police; there were more arrests as some protesters tried to get through the security perimeter and 2 more plots were foiled. Chicago closed the trains and asked people not to go to work as the protests turned violent when police tried to disburse the crowd; one officer was stabbed and 3 others injured. The Summit went on and addressed continued support for Afghanistan.

All of this got me thinking. The September 11, 2001 attacks resulted in the immediate deaths of 246 victims on 4 planes (there were no survivors) including 19 hijackers, 2,606 in the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City (NYC) including 372 foreign nationals, 292 people killed at street level by burning debris and falling bodies of those who had jumped from the WTC's windows, and 125 at the Pentagon. All the deaths (3,269) in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon (23 were police officers). RT.Com on February 7, 2012 reported - Around 12,000 men and women were dispatched to Ground Zero on September 11 and a decade down the road the number of annual cancer claims has nearly tripled. Today there around 16 police officers each year in NY that apply for cancer-related disability and the statistic has some saying that it is more than a coincidence. The NY Post on September 12, 2010 reported that at least 836 Ground Zero rescue workers and volunteers have died since the attacks, including 345 from cancer. Of the heroes who answered the call at Ground Zero, 15 were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Over 4,000 people have died because of a single terrorist attack on our soil.

I remembered the September 11, 2011 memorial. We were reminded that the whole world was riveted in 2001; there was an instant solidarity that developed between adversaries and friends of the United States. The French newspaper headline said – We are all American today (93 countries lost people on 9/11 and artifacts from the wreckage were shipped to 8 countries for memorials of their own.) In 2001 NATO invoked its charge that an attack on one is an attack on all. This collective self-defense was seen then and now around the world. Foreign countries stand by us, assisting with anti-terrorism via improved security that deters terrorists from reaching American soil and vice versa. Additionally, they did not leave our country; they remained on our soil at the United Nations, in New York City (NYC) business buildings and more. The NYC memorial has reflecting pools, names not alphabetical but near someone they had a connection with, the lone surviving tree, and the 1776 foot new World Trade Center (finished this year) marking the rebirth of our freedom and housing the museum with the remembrances of the 9/11 tragedy. It was said that Mayor Bloomberg gave $10 - $15 million of his own money to see that the monument was ready as he wanted it to be a monument to building a better world. All of this was and is a story of hope. Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani said we’re safer than we used to be but not as safe as we should be. We’ve plugged a lot of the loopholes that existed, our airport security is much better, our gathering of intelligence has improved dramatically, the cooperation with foreign governments is better and the decomposing of Al Qaeda with the death of Bin Linden helped but also made them angrier with us. Giuliani said we haven’t done enough with port security; because of company disputes and the FCC not making a decision we still hadn’t given emergency people their own radio frequency to band them all together. Some cities and states were well prepared while others are not so people need to be alert and cooperate with the police. In my opinion, it was not just NYC that needed rebuilding after 9/11; our whole nation did; technically all Americans are survivors of that incident. I heard so many stories from direct survivors and families of the 9/11 tragedy. All were living their lives with grace, pulling their lives back together, trying to honor the departed by being better people.

We were angry when we found out that 10 years after the 9/11 attack the recommendations of the Bi-partisan Policy Center report had not been fixed; a hydrogen peroxide bomb could still make it through security and communications weren’t fixed. And per the WMD Center’s Bio-Response Report Card, the US is unprepared for a biochemical attack despite spending $65 billion in the last decade.

The protestors have a right to protest, they’re lucky they live in a country that allows such without condemnation like in Syria. But the protestors in Chicago should remember why the wars exist. I don’t believe NATO should be disbanded nor do I believe the war should end before its time; we’ve made this mistake before. New Yorkers have done their part and stand as a symbol of our resilience. It’s time for the rest of us to do what they have done; embrace the bravery shown and try to emulate it. As a point of reference tomorrow I will compare the war deaths to vehicle accident fatalities in this country.