9/11...and all that comes after.

I don't really wanna talk about the 9/11 attacks. Everybody else is doing that. What could my voice add to theirs. I wasn't there. I don't know anyone who was there. I don't even know anyone who knows anyone who was there. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't affect me. The horror of that day will live in my memory for the rest of my life, those images, those deaths. John Donne wrote, "No man is an island, entire of itself....any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." On 9/11, thousands died. I am diminished thousands of times over. But that event, tragic as it was, spawned an event more tragic. Since that day, thousands more have died. More then twice as many US service men have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001, that were killed on that day. And where is their memorial garden? Tens of thousands of US soldiers have been maimed for life fighting in those two wars. Where is the statue to commemorate what they've lost? Untold numbers of innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians have died since the 9/11 attacks. There will be no memorials for them. These are the forgotten casualties of 9/11. Those four planes did more than bring down the Twin Towers, punch a hole in the Pentagon and a hole in a Pennsylvania field. The shock waves from those explosions ripple on and on; although, we don't like to think about that if we can avoid it. Folks in the military have a saying: the Military went to war and America went shopping. That's largely true. I can still recall President Bush telling the American people not to worry about the war, to go shopping, to let the professionals take care of it. We followed his advice. The wars rage on. The nation that cheered as its soldiers stormed into Baghdad is now tired of hearing about it. But the professionals are still fighting, still dying, still being wounded. The scars that most of us suffered during 9/11 will heal, if they haven't already. The scars our soldiers carry - a lot of them will never heal. The lives that have been lost cannot be regained. Yes, commemorate 9/11. Grieve for those innocent victims, men and women who didn't ask to become a part of history, but did nonetheless. But while we're remembering them, let us not forget those who have died since then as a result of what happened that day. Terrorists flew airplanes into buildings, killing thousands. Ten years later, the killing goes on. We finished the 9/11 monument. Time to start the monument for its aftermath.