United 93

I thought I still remembered well 9/11.

I remember listening to the radio when the American 11 crashed into the North tower, and how the news talked about a ‘small plane’ hitting the building. I remember standing in a little kitchen with my coworkers and watching the second plane hit the South Tower, just like a movie. I remember how everybody was in a unreal, kind of frozen state, talking about all kinds of theories for all that inexplicable spectacle. I also remember how everybody ran in panic when we heard the news about another airplane hitting the pentagon, just a few miles away from where we were.

When I watched United 93 today, I realized that I really had started to forget.

And that is why this movie is good, and important. Yes, for everyone who was affected on that day it will be painful. But that is unavoidable. That was a painful awakening, and the worst thing that can happen is that we all go back to sleep and all those deaths get buried and forgotten.

I wrote a few days ago about how worried I was about some people not understanding clearly who are the two sides that are fighting here. The whole fallacy about “not having a clear evil” like we had with the Nazis.

Now, I understand this movie is not 100% a documentary, since we will never know exactly what happened inside that plane. But that is really a moot point. What is really important here is that the movie shows, and without dispute, what happened that day. It shows who were the brutal, cold blooded assassins and who were the innocent victims. It shows how those terrorists wanted to kill for the sake of killing, and how they used civilization against itself. It shows pure and simple Evil, for anyone to see.

It’s actually easier to think that the whole situation is more complex, that violence is never the answer, and that those men had other goals besides cutting infidels throats and burning office workers to death. If that was the case, maybe the US could change some diplomatic policy and who knows, maybe these crazy people would just turn out to be nice Samaritans and everybody would hold hands and live in peace.

That world does not exist. Some people, some ideologies, are so morally corrupt that the only way to deal with them is with force. Destroying them before they have a chance to destroy us all. That is how they see us. Consequently, if we stand any chance to win this war, that is how we must see them.

If you still don’t believe it, just watch the movie. Next time it could be you in that plane.