Howard Zinn: The truth of 9/11 will probably never be known, but searching for it now is a diversion
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Zinn on Investigating 9/11
Howard Zinn on how 9/11 should matter today
April 28 – In a recent interview with TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay, Howard Zinn says that focusing on the 9/11 conspiracy theories is a diversion from the real importance the event has to teach us.
On the point of the event’s underlying influence on today’s foreign policy, Zinn says while 9/11 is important, the inquiry into how it happened and who was involved is “a waste of good energy.”
“Maybe there was a conspiracy, who knows? But I believe it’s one of those issues that can never be fully answered. Like the assassination of JF Kennedy, it will go on and on and people will write books and talk about it. It’s not that I doubt the doubters, it’s not like I doubt that there are very troubling questions to be answered, I just don’t think that it leads anywhere,” Zinn says.
Zinn says that the 9/11 conspiracy questions do not address the most important lessons of the even, which are the problems of how the Bush administration used 9/11 “as an excuse to start a war” and how American foreign policy has “inflamed and antagonized people all over the world to the point of creating terrorists.”
“Why are there such people in the world who want to blow up our buildings, who want to scare American people, who want to do terrorist…Why are there such people?” Zinn asks. “If you start asking that question, that leads you into well, is it possible that there are people in the world, all over the world, who are absolutely enraged by American policy? That’s a lot easier to prove than to trying to prove if and who planted the bombs in the 9/11 buildings.”
“That’s the question that should be investigated,” Zinn says. “The other question about conspiracy, about who knew about it and didn’t do anything about it, that to me is a dead end, a diversion. I think it leads us away from what we should be doing.”
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from the archives:
German TV: 9/11 “A Saudi Operation” and “A Big Lie”
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade
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I love Howard, and essentially the question he raises, which he believes is more important, still needs to be asked: “Why is there terrorism?”
But the American people are entitled to an accounting for 9/11. If Condoleeza Rice received a memo which she ignored, then she needs to be brought to trial for criminal negligence to face the music. Others need to be held accountable too.
This will go a long way to restore integrity in our government. Additionally, an investigation could answer Howard’s question. One thing is clear: If there is no investigation, then there will be no answer his question.
I find it incredible that Howard Zinn, a historian, would consider any inquiry into the truth about 9/11 a waste of time and a diversion. The purpose of studying history is to discover the truth so we don’t have to repeat our mistakes. 9/11 was a watershed event that led to two major wars, destruction of the nation of Iraq, the assault on American freedoms through the Patriot Act, rendition and torture, etc. So we are not supposed to try to find out who really was responsible, how it was done, and why? What is this man afraid of?