More 9/11 Gut Punch

Photo: AP Photo/NYPD via ABC News, Det. Greg Semendinger

I’m not arguing that these new 9/11 helicopter photos shouldn’t have been released, but since it was ABC that pried them loose by way of the FOIA, keep in mind the motive was as much to make money off their voyeuristic value and emotional charge as to insure they were added to the public archive.

My own take is that the display of these pictures out-of-the-blue exploits America’s near-fetishistic obsession with 9/11, the event having been so deeply politicized that its continuing emotional charge mostly serves to reinforce rampant military and civil defense spending; terrorism paranoia; more passive-submissive acceptance of the Afghan war; more fear of Muslims; and more antagonism toward the Muslim world.