September 11 a date seared into American history. However there was another Septermber 11. This date was in 1973. A date seared into a genration of Chileans. The date of the coup that overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende. A coup that ended three years of US attempts under president Nixon and secretary of state Henry Kissinger to destablize a government freely elected by its own citizens. The US promptly recognized the newly installed Junta and switched from trying to undermine the government of an independent nation to fully supporting the new dictatorship.
Within a year Augusto Pinochet assumed power. By the time he was forced out of the government to a soft landing more than forty thousand of his own people had been imprisoned, tortured, murdered under the dictatorship. The CIA disn't start the coup, but was right behind it once it started. The CIA had been stratgizing since Allende was elected in 2001. It was the height of the Viet Nam war and I suppose they were seeing dominos in Latin America as well as Asia.
There a some folks who wonder why September 11 was chosen for the attacks in 2001. Bin Ladin published his "Letter to America." Some of it I agree with. Some of it. A few paragraphs. But why that date. It could have been any date. A strike against the economic and military power we've turned against so many other nations in the years since WWII ended. It's worth thinking about. Especially with another anniversary coming up. When the bells will toll and names will be recited. Who besides their familiws recites the names of the dead, disappeared, tortured because of that other 9/11? This date, that date, an unkown date.
As usual I had one idea for an entry. The blog had another.
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