One Year Ago Today, Osama bin Laden
met his fate at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs who secretly entered Pakistan using stealth helicopters, and raided bin Laden's residential compound in the city of Abbottabad to make him pay for the atrocities that took place on American soil almost a decade earlier. Since bin Laden's death, much change has happened in the Middle East...some positive, some negative. In terms of positive, U.S. soldiers finally
pulled out of Iraq last December—thus concluding combat operations there and ending a bloody 8 1/2-year-old war in that nation. And in Libya, Moammar Gadhafi met his own demise
last October by local rebels wanting to bring change to that country after being galvanized by the so-called 'Arab Spring' uprisings that took place in other Mideast nations such as Egypt and Yemen. With the negative, civil war continues in Syria...with local protesters being killed on a daily basis by government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. These protesters were also inspired by Arab Spring, but unlike the uprising in Libya, have largely been unsuccessful in their bid to bring democratic change to their country. And in Afghanistan, chaos looms in that country as the Haqqani Network and a resurgent Taliban insurgency wreak havoc on local villagers as well as U.S. and NATO troops there. And it doesn't help that American soldiers are walking into random Afghan villages at night to go on shooting sprees and killing dozens of innocent civilians inside their homes. The U.S. is scheduled to withdraw its troops from the Central Asian country by 2014.
Closer to home, and on a positive note once more, New York City marked a significant milestone that showed it is nicely recovering from the horrors of 9/11. The
1 World Trade Center (1 WTC), with the addition of a single steel column to the top of its framework yesterday afternoon, officially replaced the
Empire State Building as the tallest skyscraper in the Big Apple
(with 1 WTC now being 1,271 feet-tall). Once completed, the 1 WTC will stand 1,776 feet-high...making it the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere
(though folks who built the Willis Tower in Chicago might disagree with this). Even though 1 WTC still has about two years to go before it will be fully completed, it already is an impressive sight gracing the New York skyline. And considering the fact it sits on the same ground where two previous towers stood and almost 3,000 people lost their lives, the 1 WTC serves as an emotional and inspirational reminder that New York City is slowly getting back on its feet—and even if bin Laden was still alive today, would show that al-Qaeda failed in its quest to bring fear to this metropolis and force it to aim low in its ambitions. Instead, New York is aiming high...with the sky being the limit as 1 WTC continues to rise above what was once the ruins of Ground Zero more than 11 years ago. That is all.
WTCProgress - Twitter.com
WTCProgress - Twitter.com
WTCProgress - Twitter.com
WTCProgress - Twitter.com
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