9/11/2001 The Day Patriotism was Hijacked

By D Randall Ashcraft

Having been taught patriotic ideas from an early age, then having served in the military and taking the oath to “protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic” several times, the author has written this book after having to redefine his beliefs regarding “patriotism” based on new evidence he has encountered. In other words, his patriotism has evolved to the point of getting “back to the basics” regarding the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the foundation of American life, yet they have taken serious hits since, and because of 9/11/01. This book is an attempt to share with his fellow Americans things that have been, apparently, deliberately withheld from the general public regarding what really happened that day and why. One must admit that it is strange that we have always seemed to have an enemy, or a “boogeyman,” as Mobster Sam Giancana once related: “The Fat Cats were fully aware that Americans will do anything for Patriotism, hence, you always must provide them with a ‘boogeyman.’ They won’t overwork themselves just to make huge profits for ‘fat cats’ for any other reason, so new enemies always have to be found or created.” Wars are big business for a certain group of wealthy “elites” who value profits above human life. This book explores this inhumane idea and much, much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646544615

Book preview

Chapter One

A Messed-Up Day: 9/11/2001

It is easier to fool a man than it is to convince him he has been fooled.

—Mark Twain

My war on terror experience began the morning of 9/11 (as it did for most people). My post office supervisor had called a stand-up meeting where all the postmen and postwomen gathered around his desk to listen to either a safety talk or something new going on with the postal service, etc. During the meeting, the guy standing next to me received a phone call; he then answered the call, which was unusual in a meeting, so I knew it must have been important. When he was done, I asked him what was up. He said the World Trade Center had been hit by a jet airliner. The television was turned on, and it was on all the networks. We all watched as this surreal event was happening and as the most recent recordings of airliners slamming into the Twin Towers were shown repeatedly.

Afterward, I made a call to my guard unit because I knew we were probably going to get deployed somewhere due to these tremendous events. I had spent quite a lot of time in real combat units on active duty, and my National Guard unit was no exception. It was an infantry unit, so I fully expected boots on the ground in some foreign country. The sergeant who answered did not know anything, but he said to keep my phone by me, so I did.

Within a month, we found out where we were going in this new war on terror. My Arkansas National Guard unit, 2/153rd Infantry Battalion received orders to deploy to Egypt in 2002, as part of the Sinai Peninsula Multinational Force and Observers Mission, a.k.a. MFO mission. This task was the result of an agreement between Egypt and Israel that neither country would encroach upon the other. It was a result of the Camp David Accords signed in 1978, through the efforts of President Jimmy Carter, serving as the facilitator between Israeli leader Menachem Begin and the Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat. Our unit’s mission was to watch for and report any Israeli or Egyptian military activity along the eastern border of Egypt.

This deployment went by without any action regarding combat, but a year after returning home from our deployment to Egypt, we were ordered to yet another deployment to Iraq, in 2004. Our sector of responsibility was in downtown Baghdad. Our mission included rounding up religious leaders and extremists who incited and supported local insurgents, as well as insurgents themselves. Also, we were tasked to seek out and confiscating weapons caches and those who were providing them. We also conducted several humanitarian missions, providing food and medical care to local Iraqi citizens. For me personally, these deployments were additional deployments and permanent change of station moves I already had under my belt to Korea, Bosnia, Germany, Panama, the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California, four times, Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Polk, Louisiana.

The fact is, however, I was a patriot before I was a soldier or postman, and I will always remain a patriot, loyal to the ideals and principles this country was founded upon, the Constitution and Bill of Rights being the foundation of her freedoms and greatness. I am convinced these documents are the primary reasons our country has been unique and a force for good, at least in my mind, in the world historically. I personally do not take our freedoms for granted. Perhaps this is because my dad had served in the Marine Corps in the late 1950s. He traveled to other countries like Okinawa and Taiwan. Having witnessed how people there lived in less fortunate circumstances than we do here, he instilled in me a sense of how good we have it here compared to other places. I have also traveled to other countries, like Bosnia, where they did not have the freedoms we enjoy here, as I have encountered oppressed people. In fact, most everywhere I traveled in the Army (I was in at least fifteen countries), the people I encountered desperately wanted to come to America. I believe this is because they see us as a shining light for human rights, opportunity, and individual freedom in an otherwise oppressed world. In a very real sense, the entire world is depending on We The People to stand up against the encroaching shadow of tyranny, which has grown more dark and sinister in the years since 9/11/01, on their behalf.

The forces behind 9/11 know how we, as Americans, think. They know how quickly we rally together to the flag with a collective and unifying purpose to vanquish any threat, perceived or real, to our country, families, and way of life. Our sense of national sovereignty and nationalism runs deep. They also know how prone we are to be suspicious of those who are different from who we are—Muslims, for example.

Most Americans have a strong sense of nationalism, which, in turn, creates a strong sense of self-identity, on a collective and individual level. We identify with being American to the core of our individual being. Combine this with the way we personally identify with Christianity and how it has historically been a strong influence in American life to many people; the idea that 9/11 was an inside job, or anything other than what we were told regarding the events of that day, seems utterly ridiculous and preposterous. I understand this since there was a time when I also had these same strong feelings and beliefs. Most Americans trust the president and vice president to a fault. I mean, why shouldn’t we have trusted