Thinking About That Day

Three years after the 9-11 attacks America and the world are changed. Not for the better in my view. America is at “war” now and American liberty erodes while the world lives with the destruction we have wrought in our quest for security. Fundamental American values of open government are compromised by an administration that claims all power in the name of national security and safety. Congress has abdicated its Constitutional authority to this same renegade regime. The world has changed since 9-11 but America has failed to understand the lessons of that change.

What America under the Bush Regime does not understand is that there is no absolute safety in the world, especially when your society has it all and so many others do not. The dispossessed and deprived will always envy and maybe even hate those of us who have. Bob Dylan had it right in Like A Rolling Stone: “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Jealousy, fear and anger are good media for growing suicide bombers. Our real security lies in their security. Satisfied people, content with their lives and prospects, will not support radical leaders and causes. America and the other rich nations will be safer only when people expect more from life than death.

On September 11, 2001 and the days after I, too, watched in horror and anger as innocent civilians were killed in the most spectacular attack in American history. I saw the images, read the stories, felt the pain and horror. The war had come home. Now we were all grunts walking into who knows what ambushes. The sense of fear was palpable. Except that it wasn’t that bad. At least now that I have a few years’ perspective. I mean this in the sense that America survived. Yes, our losses were great and we have every reason to take action to prevent more such attacks but much of America’s response to the 9-11 attacks has been neither proportionate nor effective.

American foreign policy since 9-11 has certainly not been proportionate. They killed over 3,000 Americans on that day. We killed about 6,000 Afghanis, most of whom had no responsibility for the 9-11 attack. . The war in Iraq is an even more disproportionate response to 9-11. The US and its coalition partners have killed over 10,000 Iraqis and destroyed homes, businesses and towns. At times our tactics (prisoner abuse, attacking civilian areas with bombs and artillery) resemble those of the dictatorship whose overthrow we celebrate as our one signal accomplishment in Iraq. Thus, to avenge a terrorist attack, the United States has killed over three times the number of civilians that we lost and inflicted untold damage on two civilian populations who had no responsibility for the attacks..

Maybe if all this death and destruction contributed to American security in an age of terrorism, it could be justified. But it has not. Even Afghanistan, which was a legitimate target because of its support for al-Qaeda, has not been a success. Our mission there remains incomplete. The Taliban and al-Quaeda are still holed up on the Pakistani border and al-Quaeda cells continue to operate around the world. Warlords have divided Afghanistan into fiefdoms, creating the instability that gave rise to the Taliban in the mid-90's. In Iraq, we have destabilized a secular Arab state and created and environment that has fed longstanding religious, ethnic and tribal rivalries. Bush’s failure to understand Iraqi society and nationalism, combined with his casual understanding of war have tied American forces down in Iraq indefinitely. The US military is now focused largely on one country–Iraq–and has little or no capability to serve elsewhere in the world.

Looking back, Bush has ill served this nation in dealing with the 9-11 attacks. He wasn’t at the helm on that grim day. He was flying from one secure location to another while his staff manned the war room. And when he came back to duty it was to make symbolic gestures (needed at that time of grief and shock) and lead America exactly the wrong way. Rather than looking for effective, collaborative solutions to an intractable, international problem, Bush chose the most simplistic, the most dangerous course.

Three years after September 11, 2001 the death toll continues.