Today is the 22nd Anniversary of 9/11. 

And if it wasn’t for 9/11, you wouldn’t be reading this site today. 

I was 5 years old when 9/11 happened. I remember it like it was yesterday. 

I got up and was putting on a pair of baggy green cotton sweat pants when I heard my dearly beloved mother start screaming. 

I ran out of my room into our kitchen/living room area of our single story house in Yakima, Washington. 

My mom was angry, crying, and in shock.

“What is this?” she screamed at my dad, a DEA Agent who was getting ready to go into work. “Are these old videos of fighting in Africa, or what?”

On TV were repeated images of the plane slamming into the towers. 

It went on and on. The smoking towers. The running screaming people. The second plane. The collapse. 

THE ONLY BIRDS IN THE HEAVENS 

I was homeschooled by Mom at that time, and had a class with a private tutor that happened two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday. It was called “Homelink” and was famous in the Yakima area as a help for homeschoolers. 

That 9/11 was a Tuesday, and I was supposed to go to Homelink to see my tutor, Mrs. Towell. 

My mom wasn’t sure if she should take me, but my dad said it was ok, and he decided to go to Homelink with us to drop me off. 

This was something he very rarely ever did, as he often was at work by the time I went to Homelink. I knew it was a very big deal if he was doing this. 

He was very protective of the both of us, and my little brother Harrison too who was only a few months old. 

We all packed up in the car and went to Homelink, and Mrs. Towell was there, visibly shaken. 

I distinctly recall my Mom and Dad and Mrs. Towell all in shock recalling the events of the day. 

The entire day seemed terribly gray. 

I remember after they picked me up later in the day, I was at home, and we went outside on our porch and looked into the sky. It was strangely orange. 

We lived next to an airport, and planes were always flying overhead every day.

But today, the sky was eerily empty. 

Then across the horizon, two F-16 Fighting Falcons streaked across the sky. 

The only birds in the heavens that day. 

MYTHOLOGY AND HISTORY ALIKE 

As time passed on, we followed events religiously at home. 

The Axis of Evil speech. The countdown to take out Saddam. The Thunder Runs up Highway 1. The Liberation of Baghdad. 

The tearing down of the Saddam Statue. The Butcher of Baghdad’s Capture. His execution. 

The Insurgency. The Surge. 

All these things had a major impact on me. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. 

The 24 hour news coverage, coupled with my love of Mythological Knights like King Arthur and Sir Lanceleot, Legendary Cowboys like The Lone Ranger and John Wayne, and the real History of our Revolution, our Civil War, the Wars of Napoleon and the Great Colonial Wars of Empire…

All these things were preparing for where I am in life today. 

And wherever it is that God has me going in the future. 

A CENTRAL TRUTH

A lot of things have changed in 23 years. A lot of things have gone wrong. 

A lot of mistakes were made. A lot of good people who used to be with us aren’t around anymore. 

We got ran out of Dodge in Iraq and Afghanistan, abandoning our foreign friends who depended on us to their horrific fates. 

And the truth is, we ran ourselves out. 

But all the politics aside, all the finger pointing, all the blame…it obscures a central truth that we must remember on this anniversary of 9/11. 

It’s something that goes beyond the infamous events of the day, of the last 23 years, to a truth far deeper. 

OUR CASTLE TOWERS 

That truth is: we were ambushed by a savage, monstrous, Third World foe that pledged their allegiance to the Predatory Tellurgic Snake Cult. They were the Predators, and they made us the Prey.

This was a terrible sin, and it could not go unpunished. 

And so, our nation, whose roots lie in the Confrontational fighting traditions of the Indo-European Warrior People…we saddled up and stood tall, getting revenge mano-a-mano, slogging it out with Glory and Honor. 

We were the Knights. And we slayed the Dragons that burned down the Towers of our Castle. 

And in doing so, we liberated two peoples enchained within the Dragons’ tyrannical death caves. 

HERE AND WITH US TODAY

You see, the dynamics of Olympian and Titan, Aryan and Sudra, Cowboys and Indians…they are here, and they are living today. 

Their energies, invisible to the Materialistic minds of the 21st Century, are within us and within our enemies. They have guided our actions for the last 23 years, and they guide our actions still today. 

We can only lose if we cut deals with the Dragons. 

And that’s the only way we can let our friends down, whether those friends are at home or abroad. 

WHAT’S YOUR DRAGON?

Everybody in life faces Dragons. 

Maybe it’s a savage plotting your death in a spider hole. 

Maybe it’s something else entirely, something seemingly more mundane in the daily drudge of existence. 

But whatever Dragons you face, know this: 

Saddle up. Stand tall. Face up to it Confrontationally.  

Mano-a-mano. 

Up front. 

Straight shooting. 

Don’t cut a deal with the Dragon. 

Your friends, your dreams, your very Honor demand it of you. 

That’s the True Lesson of 9/11. 

Never Forget. 

And if you want to know more about the historical events and centuries long trends that shaped the Global War on Terror in depth, then check out my book, All Men Follow the Strongman: The Forgotten History of the Iraq War.

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

09-11-2023, written at 6:13 PM, somewhere in the USA…

Sources Cited

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