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Remembering US War Crimes in Afghanistan
As we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we should also recognize the terrible cost paid by the Afghan people.
Like anyone else who was old enough to remember the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I have the memory of that day etched into my brain. What I recall most clearly is sitting on the couch of my little one-bedroom college apartment watching the news that morning. My eyes were glued to the screen and Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” was playing on my stereo:
“I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’”
As I listened to these words and watched the horrific scenes playing on my television set, I wept.
The imagery of the black branch, the bleeding hammers and the “guns that shot swords in the hands of small children” all evoked a vision of war.
At that moment, I felt it in my bones that war was coming.
And the thought of it brought me to tears.
I cried not only for the people who perished in those towers that day but also the hundreds of thousands who I knew would die in the wars to come.
