In our shock and in our sorrow, America had the sympathy, even the empathy of the world. We could have built upon that, expanded our self-assigned role as Global Beacon of Hope. We would have resisted the terrorist, vengeful part of our nature. We could have tried to heal ourselves and our neighbors from the trauma that reverberated and continues to reverberate like aftershocks long after a quake. We could have mobilized our forces and those of our allies to catch and try the criminals who helped perpetrate those attacks.

Instead, America bombed innocent people who happened to live in a country called Afghanistan whose government “harbored” some of those alleged criminals, and let the big mafioso daddies – former CIA operative Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar – get away scot-free. Then, in the name of 9/11, America bombed more innocent people in a country called Iraq that wasn’t even connected with 9/11. In the name of 9/11, we let our leaders chip away at our precious, famous freedoms with the Constitutional box cutters of the Patriot Act, the torture camps of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the CIA’s secret prisons, and the President’s illegal domestic spying program. America gave in to the terrorist within, and stepped up the global holy wars.

And yes, there are treacherous holy warriors amongst us, and not all of them wear turbans. Remember when the Reverend Jerry Falwell declared, just three days after the attack, that “God gave us what we deserve…I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen,’ ” he attempted to virtually drive a plane through the heart of the nation.

When the current administration calls Americans who protest their perma-wars “Nazi appeasers,” they are doing the same thing. Their multiple, obvious lies make us suspect everything, even their story of what happened on 9.11.01. No wonder so many 9/11 conspiracy theories abound.

And what about our President? A President is just another fragile human, like the Twin Towers are just another couple of buildings. But both are symbols, something we’d like to look up to. That’s why we were crushed when the World Trade Center collapsed (even if we weren’t crazy about its architectural design), and that’s why we look to our President for leadership in times of national trauma (even if we didn’t actually elect him). And where has this President led us? Into a perma-war that’s a holy hell, and that doesn’t even have a credible relationship to the terrible crime of 9/11.

Just imagine if our President, instead of calling for war, had called for peace. Just imagine if he had exhorted us to follow the Bonobo Way instead of acting like baboons. Just imagine if he’d focused America’s energy on tracking down and trying Osama instead of murdering all those innocents in his so-called Terror War. Just imagine if he’d reminded us that the best revenge is living well. Just imagine if he’d told us not to be afraid, and not to let sheer terror guide our hearts or our missiles. Some of us would have felt frustrated. But America would have proven itself to be a true Beacon of Hope. Then we could take real pride in remembering this day.