9/11 Has Not Changed Us Enough
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in The War On TerrorismFive years later, my memories of September 11, 2001 are as crisp and bright as was the sky that day. I remember not just the beats of the day�the unfolding national horror of it and my own personal dramas�but I remember the emotions, the sorrow and fear and rage. If I think too hard of it, my eyes still well with tears.
I was working at an office just outside the Washington Beltway. I had forgotten my cell phone that day. Friends couldn’t reach me. I couldn’t reach friends�I didn’t even have the number of the one person I knew who worked in the Twin Towers. I thought she worked on the 80th floor of Tower One, right where the first plane hit. Later I learned she worked on the 8th, and had not even made it to work before the attack.
I remember the drive home, NPR filling in details of the day. And I especially remember the small group of men and women standing at an intersection near my home in the heart of Washington, DC. They held up homemade signs reading “No retaliation.� I was shocked. As these people’s own neighbors lay dead and burning in the Pentagon, their first instinct was to call for restraint.
Restraint? I wanted bombs to rain on Afghanistan that night. I wanted vengeance, not just because we deserved it but because our future security depended on it. I couldn’t fathom how even the most ardent pacifists would react to such a day by asking that we spare the evil bastards who planned these attacks.
That was the moment that my sturdy, unquestioning liberal beliefs began to crack. More fissures would appear in the days to come as I read articles in The Progressive and at online leftist sites that blamed American policies and economic imperialism for the attacks and demanded we refrain from retaliation. Instead they wanted a UN police force to go into Afghanistan and arrest Osama bin Laden.
These writers were wrong, of course. Not just strategically, but morally as well. I stopped reading The Progressive, stopped visiting the leftist websites. But the transformation from unquestioning leftist into a question-it-all centrist was not immediate. I’ve paused and taken stock of my beliefs many times over the last five years. I ask myself all the time: is what I think I know right? Do I believe this because it is true or because it fits tidily into a nice little ideology?
Unfortunately, I do not think many Americas have changed or even adjusted their outlooks and beliefs since 9/11. On all sides of the political spectrum, people have failed to stop and rethink the world. They’ve simply taken the new realities and crammed them in to preexisting and ill-fitting ideologies. Blue. Red. Left. Right. Everyone righteous and angry. But no one is right. The “answers� are hollow.
On the 5th anniversary of 9/11, the day itself still resonates with a resounding crash. But we ourselves are, for the most part, mere echoes of what we were that day. United. Committed. Brave. Compassionate. It has washed away.
Yes, we could never maintain such unity, such commitment of purpose. But there was no reason we had to descend into ideological tribes fighting to persevere two equally flawed world views. Could we have not used that unity to forge new outlooks? Could we have avoided the bitterness and the cynicism that now pollutes our nation?
What has passed has passed and though I wish we had walked another path, I know we cannot go back and mend the many errors. We can only pause and assess where we are and why we’re here. And what we do now.
This is a time for Washingtons. For Lincolns. For Roosevelts. This is a time for leadership. So it is my deepest hope that Americans stop reflexively agreeing with “their side� and start questioning all sides. Only then can we hope to elect leaders from outside the vapid political system that so ineffectually rules us. Only then can we find the new visions for the changed world.
I fear that this is just rhetorical bullshit. I fear nothing will change. I even fear that my fears are misplaced�that the system is fine, that America is flourishing and those of us who believe otherwise are just overwrought thinkers with too much time on our hands. I fear I may be a fool.
But, then again, I don’t let my fears rule me. So I write and will continue to write in the hope that people are listening. That people stop and think and realize that we are not on the right path�and that neither left nor right has a roadmap that will work. We need change. Five years later and we still need change.
Cross-posted at: Maverick Views
This entry was posted on Friday, September 8th, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 8th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
There is another reason that restraint should have been the operative response. To date, our own FBI has been unable to link UBL or al-Qaeda to what occurred on 9/11. To date, there has been no explanation why the most heavily defended nation on the planet was unable to intercept plane one. To date there has been no explanation why Iraq became a focus on the war of terror. There were no WMD. There was no connection between the baathist government and al-Qaeda. So who did participate in the attack?
There is a precedent that should be carefully analysed and digested. The attack on the Maine. Pearl Harbor. The Gulf of Tonkin. The number of observations that do not fit what has been ascribed to the events on 9/11 is staggering. Why did the secret service allow Mr. Bush to remain in a publicly disclosed location for over an hour after it was abundantly clear that the nation was under large scale attack? Why did Mr. Cheney refuse to order flight 11 to be shot down even though he watched it on radar for over 50 miles in the command center under the White House that day? Why does a political think-tank report from late 2000, which had as its members Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle and Rumsfeld, call for the American occupaction of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan and Libya, and why would they frame this gaol as an effort that will be difficult to achieve lacking public consensus stemming from a catalysing event like Pearl Harbor? Why did Rumsfeld and several other government officials stop flying public airlines in the summer of 2001 and resort to private charters? How did an aircraft manage to even gain access to airspace of the most highly defended capital in the world and then crash into a building that had been protected by ground to air anti-aircraft missiles since the early 1960s?
If you are able to critically evaluate both left and right as you say you are, it would behoove you to start questioning the official story about the events of 9/11. They don’t hold up for long. The federal government, at best, let 9/11 happen for a reason. Dig deep enough, and the fact that the were complicit in the events becomes plausible.
September 8th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Ken,
This is what saddens me so. We cannot even agree on the realities of the world. I would like to believe you are just a lone conspiracy buff who loves a good yarn more than reality, but I’ve seen polls that say as many as 35% of Americans agree with you.
It would be wonderful to think that the world was well-ordered and fully controled–that only great powers could cause great horrors. But 9/11 conspiracy theories are, at best, an infantile need to believe in perfect order and, at worst, are malicious propaganda created to defame America and advance Islamists causes. It actually takes willfull effort to ignore the hard facts and believe in the so-called “unanswered questions.”
If I seem rude, forgive me. These conspiracy theories make me misserable because they are evidence of how terribly, terribly far we, as a nation, has to go before we can reconcile our differences. How do we have a conversation when we can’t even agree on what is and isn’t real?
It’s a messy, chaotic, unpredictable, uncontrollable world. 9/11 was proof of that.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Alan -
I strongly agree with your post and I too find Ken and his ludicrous conspiracy to be a sad reality. It’s tragic that 9/11 and the WOT are political wedge issues, repulsive really. I hold both parties accountable for contributing to this madness, and unfortunately I don’t see any resolution in sight.
*sigh*
September 9th, 2006 at 9:28 am
What I find saddening is that 45% of the people believe Saddam had something to do with 911, and back in 2003 70% thought that.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm
64% in 2005
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=544
September 10th, 2006 at 10:12 am
Sorry, if you believe that America’s involvement with the establishment of Israel and its continuing domination of the Middle East was NOT partly responsible for motivating hatred against the US, as you indicate in this sentence (”online leftist sites that blamed American policies and economic imperialism for the attacks and demanded we refrain from retaliation.”) than I am unwilling to “Change” as much as you.
9/11 didn’t “change the world,” look at some history.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
JP -
I agree - I think that people do use the US’s support for Israel as an excuse for terrorism. But OBL never mentioned the Palestinian cause for his reason for declaring war on us. In fact - from the Al Qaeda video released recently we find out that some of the hijackers gave their reason for participating in 9/11 as a way to “avenge the suffering of Muslims in Bosnia and Chechnya”. See here: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1B135B31-508F-4E0C-93E9-5077551D1B9D.htm
Bosnia - this where the US and other NATO members (without UN approval) went in to save Muslims from being slaughtered.
Also - what justification works for you as to why there have been 1730 murders in Thailand (amongst mainly Christians and Buddhists) by the Islamist? See here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1864584,00.html)
It certainly isn’t their support for Israel.
What about India? (remember 7/11?)
Or Germany? (where the bombs failed to go off)
Or Spain? (remember 3/11)
I don’t know if 9/11 changed the world - only history will tell us. But I know that 9/11 made me more aware of the Islamist threat. Did it not do that for you at all?
September 10th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
How can one be unsure that 9/11 did not change the world? It has certainly changed mine…
HHC 1-37 AR FSE, 1BCT, 1AD
Camp Ar Ramadi, Iraq
September 10th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Monica,
When you quote 7/11 India as an “example” of Islamic terrorism, I suggest a small modicum of caution should be taken.
The situation in Gujarat and Maharashtra is at least as confused as that in Bosnia, Kosova or Lebanon.
The history of Maharashtra since the creation of Pakistan in 1947 includes at least two instances of state sponsored civil action by Nationalist Hindus against a comparatively small Muslim minority. Given the oppression and killing of a minority with the tacit involvement of the state is likely to lead to “self-protection” what more could really be expected?
Your line of argument is nothing more than continuing the self-fulfilling prophesy that has been used by a small number of very well known people over the past five years.
The rationale behind that self-fulfilling prophesy has always escaped me. It has certainly been an effective weapon; at keeping the folks at home on side, and at creating even more enemies in the wider world and thus increasing the probability of the self-fulfilment.
The one small ray of hope comes from thoughts such as those expressed by ASC. A small ray, shining through the smoke clouds of war. I suspect that it is going, rather than approaching…
September 10th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Probligo -
You ask me “what more could really be expected?”
How about a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King? Those two men and their movements advanced their cause peacefully and with huge successes. Those are my expectations. Those are the people that I and other civilized people of the world would bargain with and listen to. I don’t excuse terrorism because people have grievances.
Your description of why my line of argument is of the “self fulfilling prophecy” type isn’t at all clear to me. Please explain it further as I’m interested in understanding.
September 11th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Hmm, interesting thought. I agree that it would be nice if “the muslims” were to follow a nice and pacifist leader like Ghandi or MLK. But I have to ask the question -
“Where was the Ghandi, or MLK in the US administration on 9/12/01?”
If I read what you are trying to say correctly, the mere fact that “Islamists” were responsible for a particular action completely negates any need to even think about let alone understand the “why” it might have happened. After all, it is only what “Islamists” do.
Have you read the independant NGO reports from the Gujarat riots? They make for interesting reading.
“I know that 9/11 made me more aware of the Islamist threat. Did it not do that for you at all? “
I know that you directed the question to another, but I want to put my answer to you.
9/11 and what has followed has made me very much aware of two things.
Firstly, that it is possible for individuals to “wage war” against a nation, even one as powerful as the US. But if I am honest, I did not need 9/11 to prove that. Oklahoma City should have been sufficient. So should the first WTC bombing. I put “wage war” in quotation marks as I am still not convinced that it is appropriate. Certainly there is a criminal act; but a declaration of war?
Secondly, that it matters not who or what one might be; individual or nation. It is a fundamental that every action will lead to a commensurate consequence. That consequence may be masked by further actions, or falsehoods, but it will still be there.
Which then leads to my comment on self-fulfilling prophesy.
The response to 9/11, the GWOT (which is hardly “global” at all), the war in Iraq (and I exclude Afghanistan as that was UN sanctioned and we all bear responsibility for it) have all had one effect - the killing of considerable numbers of Muslims.
The prophecy that is self-fulfilling is that made by those who drive the other side of this “war”. They are not “dumb Islamofascists”. They predicted the response of the “Great Satan”. They prepared their followers for death and glory. They predicted that the response of the “Great Satan” would kill a great many of their numbers. They prepared their path for glory - “If your life is going to end at the hands of the Great Satan, then you have the responsbility, the religious duty, to strike back even at the cost of your life”. It is happening now in Iran. A mother “signs up” (if you listen to the propaganda) 200,000 from her neighbourhood as jihadi. Her name was first on the list.
And the “Great Satan” sees a threat, or some other need to respond, and moves to remove it.
The prophecy is fulfilled.
Oh, and as far as OBL mentioning Palestine as “the cause”… I seem to recollect hearing an audio (Al Jezheera of course) of OBL just not long after 9/11. In the translation that I heard there was mention that 9/11 was revenge for “the twin towers of Palestine”. I believe that this was a reference to the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. Others may have closer proof either way than I can lay my hand to at present.
September 13th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Monica, that was a bit on the brusque side. I apologise because your thought required better consideration than I wrote down.
I have expanded on the theme here.