Americans like things clean and neat and distant

We have never fought a war on our home turf. Yet we have fought wars and lost souls on the home soil of other countries.

Americans like war. We revel in the glory and rush of war. We worship the bright shiny machinery of war. 

But we shudder at the gory images of war: the coffins draped in the American flag, soldiers with no limbs limping along on the sidewalk, veterans who live in abandoned buildings and underneath bridges, who are addicted to alcohol and dope, who dwell in a nether world of reality and fantasy.

Many young veterans are homeless, suicidal and slipping into an obscure nightmare from which no escape is imminent.

The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have produced a generation of dispirited and desperate human beings. But that's war and conflict. 

There's always been a Generation Kill; there's always been a generation sent to kill in the name of patriotism while the politicians sit on their asses in front of television cameras justifying the death and destruction of fellow human beings.

Yet we avoid the grim reality and bleak aftermath of war. We want things clean neat and distant.

We scoff at the bodies blown apart by bombs in other countries and scorn their politics and sneer at their religion and culture. They, in response, sneer at our naivete and simplicity of thought and action while they bury their children in mass graves.

Then 9/11 hit us emotionally and spiritually.

The attack suddenly thrust upon Americans the agony of seeing and hearing our friends and family die. Americans were shocked and amazed more by the audacity of someone attacking us rather than by fault lines in the world.

What can we say about the 13^th anniversary of 9/11? 

That we have never dealt with 9/11 intellectually. That we still, despite our money and machinery, are quite naive.

That a violation of our civil liberties and rights, perceived or otherwise, enrages us. Yet, gleefully, we violate the civil liberties and rights of citizens of other countries.

9/11 horrified and shocked us. The collapse of the Twin Towers is a nightmarish reminder, in its dramatic images, of what could happen if we let it happen.

Americans are soft, complacent and compliant.

We revel in selfies instead of self-reliance and self-respect. 

Our politicians bicker over pennies while people go without health insurance and food and jobs.

Our politicians dispute money spent on education and healthcare while bestowing upon themselves every perquisite their legion of staffers can unearth.

On this anniversary, America prepares to clean up its mess in Syria and Iraq. American politicians made this mess. Now it's time to take responsibility for this mess in the Middle East and get it done right.

Air strikes, first, of course, for they are clean and neat and distant. A handful of troops on the ground – clean and neat and distant.

What the rest of the world sees isn't what America is looking for.

What is America looking for? What does America want to be when it grows up?