TASC Remembers Victims and Lessons of 9/11
The Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC) remembers the 2,977 Americans who were massacred by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization in New York City on September 11, 2001, and expresses its continued solidarity with their families and friends, and the American people against the scourge of international terrorism in the homeland and abroad.

Seventeen years ago today, the terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, hijacked and flew two commercial airlines, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11, into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center in New York City. In addition to the nearly 3000 deaths, over 6000 persons were injured and over $10 billion in property damage was suffered.

TASC remembers the lessons of 9/11, which is that support for the Taliban against Russia resulted in Al Qaeda. Similarly, support for the Shiites in Iraq created ISIS from the alienated Sunnis, and U.S. support for the YPG-PKK (organizations listed as terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State and US Office of the Director of National Intelligence) in Syria today will come to hurt all of us in the near future. Global policy must be to provide no quarter to terrorism, and for supporters of terrorist organizations to be prosecuted under criminal law, as well was to provide restitution and reparations to their victims.

Another lesson of 9/11 is the cost to American democracy at home and American credibility worldwide, as articulated by the Center for Constitutional Rights on 9/11/2017.

“The recast of fears of post 9/11:

9/11 created a paradigm shift in which the United States became a scared nation.
9 /11 became a turning point in which America's sense of security was tested beyond limits.
9/11 events created an opportunity for the government to manipulate our feelings and cause us to second guess our values in favor of our most basic, vindictive instincts. It became normal to view "otherness" with suspicion, making it seem reasonable to conduct illegal surveillance. Our now-stoked feelings of fear made it seem logical to unconstitutionally round up hundreds of Muslim boys and men across the world — the majority of whom were never charged with a crime — and detain them in a legal black hole called Guantanamo Bay for the last 17 years.
9/11 made words and phrases, like "Al Qaeda," "Taliban," "mass weapons of destruction," and "War on Terror," household terminology, so much so that we softened to the idea of the imprisonment and torture of innocent Iraqi men and women.
9/11's fog of alarm and paranoia made us believe that no one should be held accountable for the years of torture those people endured at Abu Ghraib. We had been convinced they deserved that brutality."

America is in principal a transparent and democratic nation, respecting many voices that question and criticize the errors listed above and constantly self analyzing and exploring ways not to repeat these deadly mistakes. Also as a nation of many colors, ethnicities and religions, we progressively endeavor towards accepting diversity, similar to many experiences of the past centuries, which led us to be one of the most inclusive nations in the world.
 
Respectfully,
Gunay Evinch, Esq                      Halil Mutlu,MD
TASC Co-Chairman                   TASC Co-Chairman