The unleased power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. —Albert Einstein
9/11/2001 “changed everything,” except—it didn’t. —Phill Courtney

By Phill Courtney
On the morning of 9/11/2001, I was teaching English at Perris Lake High School in Perris California, when those planes flew into those buildings that dark day twenty-five years ago. I didn’t find out at school, but on the radio before I’d left, and while my duties at the school included teaching, I also supervised student volunteers in the main office as we announced various timely bulletins over the P.A. system, ranging from reminders about overdue library books to afterschool activities, but that morning, of course, was decidedly different.
I decided that my main duty that morning over the P.A. was to calm students’ fears (and perhaps some faculty members’ as well) with a measured and factual account of just what was known by that early point in time, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. I’ve never been a big fan of that recitation’s rote nature, often replacing it with a “highlight from American history” to satisfy the California Ed Code, but, again, that morning was different, so the Pledge took on an added emotional intensity.
However, despite my attempts to be factually accurate during the announcements, later that morning I immediately experienced one student’s reaction to the events that would, unfortunately, be shared by many adults in the coming weeks; months; and years: an unfounded “buying into” various alternate versions of what had “really happened”—or, in the student’s case, what was happening.
Since I did the announcements, and, thinking that I must be the campus source of information about the ongoing events, she had breathlessly rushed to my room to find out if it was true that one of the planes was heading towards Disneyland—a fear that at least made a distorted sort of sense for a teenager—and was relieved when I was able to reassured her that, as far as I knew, there was not.
If only dealing with adults in the future had been as easy. Almost immediately I was hit full force with the reality of that problem when I went to my brother’s house for the annual family Thanksgiving dinner just a few days after the W. Bush administration had decided to start bombing the people of an entire country for the crimes of some radical jihadists hiding out there.
Later that afternoon, after some socializing and a lawn game, my father—who, up until then, with one exception, had never meet an American bombing he didn’t like (he and his one brother had not approved of the Japanese atomic bombings) decided that we needed to discuss the war around the dinner table, and despite my advice that perhaps it would be best if we didn’t, informing him that my column about it would soon be published, which we could discuss later, he wouldn’t have it.
Over the next thirty minutes or so, I soon discovered that every member of my extended family (some ten that day, including my dad’s brother and my former girlfriend), supported the bombing of Afghanistan, and despite my heartfelt pleas and arguments that bombing the country during our government’s alleged “War on Terror” would do no “good,” was unable to “move the needle” (or any hearts) when it came to the bombing. That night I went home and sobbed in bed after my futile attempt to divert any in my own family from a path that I knew would soon lead to unspeakable tragedy for countless people.
And this was the unwavering way ahead for millions of Americans as they fell into line along this “patriotic path” in the weeks to come, with a few notable exceptions like the courageous African American congresswoman, Oakland’s Barbara Lee, who questioned the wisdom of granting George W. unlimited power and time to wage his “War on Terror,” and voted accordingly, becoming the sole vote against it amongst a total of some four hundred plus representatives. Need I say that her reward for doing so was countless anonymous death threats.
Although I did have a number of “fellow travelers” when I came to opposing the war, not the least of whom were members of the Green party, many on the so-called “left” decided to make that radical left-hand turn into the twisting corridors and halls of mirrors that many of the 9/11 conspiracy theories inevitably led to; theories that have ultimately led to yet more conspiracy theories and, finally, to nowhere.
Looking back on it, in particular I remember one gathering in the Redlands Smiley Library Assembly room a couple of years later that packed the place with people eager to hear the “truths” of 9/11, particularly those put forth by a group calling itself “Engineers and Architects for 9/11 Truth,” which was then riding high on the crest of countless videos about the subject.
Although I was also eager to “keep an open mind” about such theories as the claimed “controlled demolitions” that supposedly brought down the Twin Towers and the third building that collapsed that day, I also began to question the ability of theorists to counter every counter argument with a counter argument, particularly after I’d read the mainstream Popular Mechanics magazine report on the subject.
They did a thorough examination of the physics involved and dismissed basically all the theories, but I was told by a theorist I was dialoguing with then, that, of course, Popular Mechanics would be dismissive since they were “bought off,” and part of the conspiracy. He also told me that the Osama bin Laden seen on a video taking credit for 9/11, was an impersonator hired by the CIA.
So, this was the way it went as the “War on Terror” morphed into the “War on Iraq,” and the W. Bush administration pressed its case that we needed to use our military to pull off a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from acquiring those mythical “weapons of mass destruction,” which I call mythical because—they were—proven beyond a doubt after W. got his invasion and none was discovered.
But W.’s and his co-conspirators’ “full court press” and propaganda campaign about those weapons proved sadly convincing. Not only did they get England’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to go along with it, many Americans did too, with a Time magazine poll showing that over seventy percent—yes, seventy percent—even believed W. and company’s later insinuations that Hussein had attacked us on 9/11—a boldface falsehood that was so obviously bogus it’s still amazing to me that anyone believed it.
Now I use the term “co-conspirators” because this term strikes at the core of the problem in the years since 9/11, because, despite all those theories about what “really happened” on 9/11, none has been proven, while one absolutely has. It soon became obvious to me that while the Bush administrate did not “orchestrate” the attacks on 9/11, nor “allow” them to happen, they definitely took “advantage” of them and launched a conspiracy within the White House to do so.
Yes, here’s a conspiracy that’s thoroughly proven, and the problem is not any of the others that haven’t, but the one that has, which, tragically for the world and our country, did not result in any government investigations that proved it and brought these co-conspirators, who were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, to justice because not a single one of them has served a single day in prison.

And that glaring lack of justice continued on into the following presidential administration of Barack Obama, who, when asked if he would prosecute any of the unindicted criminals in the W. administration for their illegal wars, famously told the American people that it was time to look forward, not backward, and to just basically get over it, resulting in the continuing chain of criminality.
Not only was there that dereliction of duty, but, instead of, for instance, turning it all over to peacekeeping troops from the United Nations, Obama continued the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan which followed the internationally illegal wars on those countries, which, in turn, was also kept in place by that certain president which followed Obama in 2017.
Admirably, although chaotically, Joe Biden, the president whose one term was bookended by the two of Trump’s, was courageous enough to see the futility after twenty years of occupation; faced reality; and ordered a pullout in 2021, he must have known full-well that he would face a storm of criticism by, of course, the attack-dog Republicans, but that he would also weather some pushback within his own party as well.
In the meantime, instead of pulling the plug, Biden made sure that our weapons pipeline continued to flow into Israel to enable their internationally recognized genocide in Gaza, so there’s no giving him “a pass,” there, let alone most in his own party, and, predictably, the Republicans as well (with a handful of exceptions), so it must first be recognized that both of our major parties have engaged and are engaging in international (and national) criminality if we’re to have any chance of moving forward.
And now, as we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, we find that the government of our current president is still continuing another totally illegal war under both national and international laws, and for those who seemingly still can’t (or won’t) recognized that fact, here’s one simple and understandable way to define why this is true: the laws say that one country cannot attack another country unless that country has first attacked them, or is about to. In other words: no pre-emptive wars.
Remarkably, some ten years ago, I even had to explain this principle to a local man running for Congress as a Republican who seemed to have not thought about it before. Of course, W.’s administration did their best to convince many Americans that this threat from Iraq was real (and did, astoundingly, succeed with many, including Hillary Clinton, which should have disqualified her from any presidential run) and had the capacity, from thousands and thousands of miles away, to attack the most militarily powerful country in the world—a country which could, in turn, wipe them off the map. It’s a contention that’s totally absurd on its face.
So, the question remains: in the next twenty-five years where do we go from here in the next twenty-five, since the last twenty-five have demonstrated beyond a doubt that 9/11’s dreadful events did not fundamentally change the criminal nature of our country’s foreign policy?
Well, the first badly needed step is for all Americans (or at least the vast majority) to recognize that our government consists of many international outlaws (along with, of course, many other nations as well); embrace the laws of the U.N. and other legal bodies (as well as our own in the Constitution) and elect only leaders who are prepared to do so.
At first it seemed that Trump would break with the past when he talked about the 2003 Iraq War as “stupid” when he was running the first time in 2016 and vowed to keep us out of anymore “stupid” wars, thereby clearing the debate stage of his Republican rivals (even I applauded that), but, of course, his second term with this war on Iran blew that promise completely out of the water—both figuratively and literally—and I’m sorry to say this, Don, but it looks like you’re just going to have to kiss that Nobel Peace Prize goodbye.
So, that’s the first step now before any others can follow, but because of the past twenty-five years—years that included those conversations with my family; that talk with a Republican congressional candidate; and many encounters with self-described progressive Democrats, who inwardly see the reality of their party’s criminal policies, but outwardly remain “loyal,” while they continue to claim that they will eventually “change the party from within,” leave me somewhat skeptical about the future.
In other words: I’m not holding my breath. But, on the other hand, after working on all I’ve explained in this column and through all these years since 9/11, including a run for Congress myself in 2002, I’m not prepared to “throw in the towel,” and will never do so for as long as I can, and, if you haven’t yet, welcome all who want to join me. Our nation needs you.
Phill Courtney was a long-time high school English teacher and a Riverside County candidate for Congress with the Green party in 1998 and 2002. His email is: pjcourtney1311@gmail.com