 I want to welcome everyone who joined us today for a Massachusetts peace action and tank webinar. Never forget 9 11 and the 20 year war on terror. First I would like to thank our co-sponsors who have made this possible. The coalition for civil freedoms, historians for peace and democracy, united for peace and justice, world beyond war, project censored, veterans for peace, covert action magazine, military families speak out on earth peace and the national network opposing the militarization of youth. So as we all know the world changed on September 11, 2001, the tragic deaths of almost 3,000 people and the destruction of the world trade centers, Twin Towers in New York City had a deep effect and impact on the American people. It fundamentally altered the culture of the United States and its relationship with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the violence of that day was not confined. It spread throughout the world as America lashed out both at home and abroad. The almost 3,000 deaths of September 11th became hundreds of thousands if not millions of deaths from the wars that the United States launched in retaliation and revenge. Tens of millions of people lost their homes and we created the worst migration and refugee crisis since the Second World War. Now with the lies of weapons of mass destruction, a majority of the country was convinced to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan for it, some of the worst foreign policy decisions of the modern era. Becky Mcbranch was also given sweeping authority to make war cross borders and without limits and the conflict in the Middle East spread under both Republican and Democratic presidents leading to wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia. Once again, if you could please mute yourself if you're not speaking, just to cut down on the background. Now 9-11 was also used as an excuse to change the relationship of the U.S. government to its citizens in the name of safety and national security. The federal government was given vast expansive surveillance powers that threatened privacy and civil liberties. The Department of Homeland Security was created and with it ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Words like enhanced interrogation, euphemism for torture entered the American lexicon and the Bill of Rights was tossed aside. After the events of September 11, 2001, never forget became a common expression in the United States. Unfortunately, it was not only used to remember and honor the dead, but like phrases like remember the main and remember the Alamo, never forget was also used as a rallying cry to war. 20 years after 9-11, we're still living in the age of the war on terror. So today, what we're going to do is we brought together experts, activists, academics, veterans to reflect on what the last 20 years means to this country and to the world at large. Because we know that if we don't remember our history, we're doomed to repeat the mistakes that we have already made. So I want to thank you all for joining us for this important program. And with that, I want to pass the floor over to Rachel Brunke of the Cold War Truth Commission. Rachel, the floor is yours. Thank you, Brian. Welcome all. My name is Rachel Brunke. And along with Frank Dorrell, we coordinated back in March the Cold War Truth Commission. I like to see a lot of names on this webinar also from that one. I am a high school teacher, and I'm going to a lot of you might not know, but we have reached out specifically to thank you for the shout out about the flag. You know, this is a big day. I'm 53, a lot of, we all, you know, who are of whatever age, remember where we were this day. So I want to pause and just kind of give a little reverence, a little homage to what a lot of us are going through remembering those days, not just the tragedy of it, but the knowledge of what we knew could have been and should have been done. And here we are 20 years later, and it wasn't done. We can't go back in time, but we can definitely go forward and have a redo, and maybe America is ready this time. So I'm a high school teacher, I teach environmental resource engineering. And I'm here to say, as we know, that war is completely unsustainable. Neither the planet nor the people can withstand the endless murder of each other. I'm talking to you from Los Angeles. We are in drought. We are in what seems like incessant heat. We live in increasing income inequality, people without homes, children without food, a population who is uneducated and frighteningly seems unprepared to deal with what's coming planetarily and socially in this country. And yet it is my feeling because we are on the streets doing peace activism, and I'm in my classroom with the kids that the people are ready. They need a change, and they're ready to be told the truth, perhaps, by our government. So we are at a pivotal moment right now, I feel, just like we were 20 years ago. We were at a pivotal moment to do the right thing. And we are once again at that moment. There are some different things. We don't have the natural resource base to continue the lie maybe that we started 20 years ago and didn't address our problems. So we'll see if the planet is going to kick us into truth finally. But we're, you know, the question has to be asked, will the American government again betray the will of the American people? It was not the will of the American people 20 years ago to go to war. We were bamboozled, as we have been for decades, into war. And so I'm just so happy to be a part of this meeting today. And I want to let you know for all of the we're running this like a sort of like a webinar, but it is a meeting at three o'clock when we end when our last speaker ends. We're staying on and like we did the truth commission, if people want to, to we'll have kind of an open mic and if people want to share and they want to have action items, whatever, we'll we'll see how it how it goes, but I want to let people know they can use the chat, but also that we'll be having that at the end. And lastly, two links, and then I'll mute here, but two links that we're going to be putting into the chat right now is this meeting is for a privileged group. And that privilege group in my mind is the youth. And so we have made a special effort to reach out to especially high school youth who are being told only partial story if at all truth. And so we have come up with some literature on Afghanistan. And we've also come up with a worksheet that we have reached out to teachers to assign to young people. So I want everyone to know that there are a lot of young people we hope on this call today. And so I will put the worksheet again in the chat to fill out for for credit, perhaps for your classes. And lastly, wonderfully, Barbara Trent, who is an Academy Award winning filmmaker. Many of you know, she made the film Cover Up the Around Contra Affair and also Panama Deception. I will be putting a couple of very important links into the chat about movies that she has short clips, longer clips specifically about 9-11. She was there for an entire week in New York talking to the people after 9-11. And the fact is they were anti-war and they knew exactly what was going on. So we need everyone to understand that her films are very important. So look for those items in the chat and we look forward to a great meeting today. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Emily Dorrell and I'm with Code Pink. Wanted to give a big shout out to Mass Peace Action and for all their incredible help. We love working with you. So I'm actually filling in today for Danika Kotovic. She is unable to make it. She was supposed to be our co-host, but is unable to. So I'm going to try and do my best to fill her shoes. So welcome. Reflecting on the last 20 years and what we hope to get out of today is to remember that war is never the answer. When faced with death and tragedy and collective grief causing more suffering for others will never heal us and will never give us more peace. It's no secret now that we relied to. We've relied to about weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, drone strikes, all in order to manufacture our consent for war. 20 years ago may feel like a long time, but the liars and the war profiteers are still here and some of them still make policy. So if we are to recognize that people in power are willing to lie to us and international bodies in order to go to war, we must continue to think critically about how the United States discusses its so-called enemies so that history does not repeat itself. We hope this list of amazing speakers today will help us remember what happened in the wake of 9 11 and what has occurred over the last 20 years. And what we can learn from all of it. Each speaker will speak about five to seven minutes and we will be linking actions as Brian and Rachel both already said in the chat. So be sure to check that out and stay engaged, take action with us and share on social media if you would like to. Really quickly, I would like to give a quick shout out to Fernando Suarez del Solar, who is watching his son Jesus was one of the first Marines killed in Iraq. So wanted to give him a shout out and thanks for being with us today, Fernando.