Don't Forget the Post-9/11 Combat Veterans
Plus: Remembering Russian War Crimes in Mariupol
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WILL SELBER: On 9/11 We Promise to āNever Forget.ā But Too Often We Forget the Post-9/11 Combat Veterans.
I HATE 9/11. I hate the commemorations, the Facebook posts blaring āNever Forget,ā and the empty declarations that we will stand vigilant.
I didnāt always feel this way. I used to religiously watch the annual ceremonies. And Iād rewatch footage of the horrific event itself. Seeing the iconic images again helped steel my resolve and propelled me to stay dialed in to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They motivated me to fight.
But ever since 2021, when Kabul fell, I have come to despise the public remembrances of 9/11. Why? Because almost nobody speaks truthfully about the wars that followed.
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CATHY YOUNG: Remembering Russian War Crimes in Mariupol.
LATE LAST MONTH, a documentary called 20 Days in Mariupol, made by video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and produced by the Associated Press and the PBS program Frontline, opened in Ukraine after having been released in select theaters in the United States and Europe over the summer. Having seen this 93-minute film at a PEN America screening in New York in May and found parts of it almost unbearable to watchāa lot of reviews use the word āharrowing,ā and for a good reasonāI can barely begin to imagine how it would affect Ukrainians for whom the war it chronicles is not a distant horror but a daily reality.
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Happy Monday! And to all those who hold this day a little bit more dear than the rest of us, weāre keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. I have a 9/11 license plate, and while this attack didnāt impact me or my family personally, itās one thatās had a profound effect on me. I tried explaining 9/11, vaguely, to my almost six year old twins today, as the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon was airing on C-SPAN radio this morning as we went to school. One twin wanted to know why people would want to hurt other people, the other, after I explained that thousands of people died, observed: āWell, a lot of people are growing, too.ā Indeed. And then, thereās this.
Some victims of 9/11ā¦ Are still being identified.
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