77 American Soldiers Wounded on September 11th | Milpages ...

On Sunday September 11, 2011, on the ten year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9-11, Americans watched as survivors, politicians, and family members mourned/remembered the victims of that attack. On the other side of the world a large truck full of firewood pulled in front of Combat Outpost Sayed Abad in eastern Wardak province in central Afghanistan. While the protective barrier absorbed the blast, guarding against U.S. deaths, the bomb still wounded 77 American troops. Watching the remembrances in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., feelings of remorse, pity, sympathy, sadness, and more entered the collective minds of the nation, but did a strange feeling of ?that?s all they could do,? quietly creep in as well?

With a can-do grandiose attitude typical of Americans, construction of the World Trade Centers, the soon-to-be largest buildings in the world began on August 5, 1966. Using 1960?/70?s technology and equipment, the builders finished both towers by July 1973. It took people forty years ago, just seven years to complete this massive building project! Each time they appeared on television or someone stood at their base and felt vertigo just looking as the sun-kissed towers seemingly touched the clouds, he/she had to feel an overwhelming sense of pride in a nation capable of such beauty and inclusion into the skyline. Which is just one of the reasons the nation collectively wept at more than just the loss of life, it was an attack on the very foundational pride of our nation, a seeming metaphor for the crumbling of our society. Americans rightfully weep at the injury of even one soldier. Seventy-seven sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, wounded makes even the most hardened of people distressed.

As the tenth anniversary neared, people again felt that familiar nervousness of a possible attack. Reports abounded about possible creditable threats to the homeland and an eerie feeling of impending attack hovered over the country, but nothing happened. Many remained glued to their televisions to watch the remembrance ceremonies. Two beautiful memorials marked the ground where the trade centers once stood and a section of the new Freedom Tower rose above the memorial with scaffolding all around. The sheer size of the holes in space-burdened New York City combined with the video of the planes flying into the Towers helped put into perspective the massive scope of the attacks. While the injury to any of our soldiers is tragic and especially any that are recent, the terrorist could only mount a largely unsuccessful attack, and only in their backyard. This diminishment of the capabilities of the organization that carried out the attacks stands as a testament to those who were injured and every soldier who has died since that day.

Even though the fountains are beautiful in the area, it?s great seeing the new towers, and the victims and their survivors deserve a place to mourn their loss, it begs a question; is that all America is capable of? How could the original trade centers go up in seven years while we watch the ten year anniversary with holes in the ground and a barely started new tower? The greatest testament to America?s resiliency is our greatness of vision. Kennedy says we?re going to the moon and ten years later Neil Armstrong bounces across it; Nazi Germany and Japan simultaneously defeated in four years; Kuwait to Baghdad only took twenty days; it took President Ronald Reagan and his policies nine years to bankrupt the Soviet Union, but ten years later, holes in the ground and scaffolding. Is this all we can do?

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Source: http://www.milpages.com/military-news/77-american-soldiers-wounded-on-september-11th/

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