The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty by Jim Marrs
Almost as an antithesis to the DeLillo novel, Jim Marrs' book is a lengthy dissection of the events of September 11, 2001 along with a thorough history of not only what led up to it but also the many events that have proceeded as a result of the worst terrorist attack on United States soil since Pearl Harbor. The conceit one must buy into when approaching this work is that the events that day were not as they seemed and not only were distorted substantially but, even worse, maybe even allowed to happen. Yes, it was a huge conspiracy that is so vast and complex that I'm not sure anyone can really comprehend it. Marrs is a good writer, and he definitely pulls you in with a brisk writing style that keeps the reader enthralled with the plethora of revelations, or quasi-revelations, that he throws out there with much supporting evidence and cited sources. In other words, it's not as if he's just making this stuff up off the top of his head or it's something he's gleaned from the many conspiracy sites on the web.

As with any book on this type of subject, though, it's hard to swallow all of it. Were the towers brought down by explosives? Were the planes remotely piloted? What happened at the Pentagon? What happened to Flight 93, and was it really flown into the ground after a passenger revolt? These questions and many others are pretty interesting to explore because there's a certain plausibility to them. On the other hand, Marrs mires the entire scenario with tons of information regarding secret societies and organizations that many of the main players involved are supposedly a part of. I find it interesting to contemplate, but it seems, at points, to be more than one can handle.

The fact that this post is actually getting published on 9/11 adds a certain sense of irony to the post I hadn't intended, and it's always best to be mindful of the fact that while many find conspiracies interesting to ponder, there's also the flip side to consider, the actual victims of the tragedy or event. I'd like to imagine that those who put so much effort into constructing these elaborate theories do in some sense have the victims in mind and that the search for an ultimate truth is really what this is all for. However, I don't think it necessarily happens that way, which is unfortunate. To some people, I'm sure this is just a hobby or interesting area of study, as with the JFK assassination, which coincidentally or perhaps not Marrs wrote extensively on, but for the victims wild theories of remote controlled planes and a government complicit in the very tragedy that took their loved ones from them are not just areas of interest.

The thing with events like 9/11 is that people can have it both ways. It was either a massive intelligence failure on the part of our government, or it was a coordinated attack propagated by vast numbers of people in power from governments far and wide. Either way, one can see that something led to these events. One just needs to choose whether to accept them as fantastical in nature or merely tragic.