Over the past 10 years, I have increasingly come to dread the arrival of September 11th. It is the day the United States will remember a terrible criminal act in its history. 2977 people died that day from a brazen terror attack pulled off by 19 terrorists, mostly of Saudi extraction, against the United States. Solemn memorials will be held today to honor the many incidents of heroism by so many different individuals as well as deeply heartfelt grief at the senseless loss of life by all of the 2 996 – deprived of a future they so clearly deserved.
It’s beyond cliche, but all Americans who were alive that day, remember where they were when the news came to them.
I remember exactly where I was that day. I had been out and about and had just returned to the BOQ where I was living then. The S.O. called me and told me the World Trade Center had been attacked. I thought there was a mistake in translation somewhere. So I flipped on NHK and then saw the truth-right about the time the first tower collapsed.
I know people who were working in the Pentagon that day. That was equally horrific, as was the tragic loss of Flight 93 that day.
Jeffery Goldberg has expressed it well-“That is the crucial truth of 9/11. Osama Bin Laden had gathered to him men who were devoid of love and who found in al Qaeda a vehicle for expressing their hatred of humanity. On the 10th anniversary of the murderous rampage committed by soulless men, we should remember the victims, and count our own blessings, and recommit ourselves to the suppression of evil and the protection of the innocent. ”
I’ve written many posts on the subject of 9-11 in the intervening years since I first started writing this blog in 2005. There is a list of them at the bottom of this post. My feelings on the significance of this day can be summed up in words that I wrote 10 years ago, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of that terrible day:
I will always remember and will never forget. But in doing so, it also means that I will never forget what came in its aftermath, much of which was-to put it bluntly-misdirected effort, in response to a unique event, the likes of which most of us had never seen before.
It’s important, therefore, to look at 9-11 for what it is, a deliberate act of cold-blooded murder. The fact that is so, does not, however, provide a blanket absolution for the myriad of flawed events that followed in its wake. We have exacted our vengeance for that horrible day a 100 times over. The cost of doing so has been huge-and we will debate the wisdom of those subsequent decisions for years.
Guys like Dick Cheney, and George Bush and others-believe the horror of 9-11 gives them a pass on responsibility for flawed decision making subsequent to the event. I say no. The rat holes of the wars that have been pursued in the years following, and the very avoidable -and equally tragic-costs, cannot be just wiped away just because we were the victims on a particular day.
We can though, remember that day with honor – and vow to move forward into a better future than what those murderers tried to inflict upon us. All of our worlds changed that day-and I for one wish that day could be undone. I want my world of September 10, 2011 back. But its never coming back.
9-11 will always be with us. But we can work hard to restore the world that once was before.
Of course, we will feel sorrow at the tragedy. How can any decent person not feel sorrow? But always in the back of my mind will be the distinct memories of the aftermath and the betrayal of our national values that were enabled by our incredible lust for vengeance that 9-11 unleashed.
Make no mistake about it, the March of American progress, so hard-earned, came to a screeching halt on 09-11-2001. Terrible, truly terrible forces were unleashed, knowingly or unknowingly, on that day – and we are still living with the results of those forces today.
And who told us that today? George W. Bush. His speech today was a good one – and I hope it represents an epiphany for him and for the nation.
As a nation, our adjustments have been profound. Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal. The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort and reminders of our vulnerability. And we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.
After 9/11, millions of brave Americans stepped forward and volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces. The military measures taken over the last 20 years to pursue dangers at their source have led to debate. But one thing is certain: We owe an assurance to all who have fought our nation’s most recent battles. Let me speak directly to veterans and people in uniform: The cause you pursued at the call of duty is the noblest America has to offer. You have shielded your fellow citizens from danger. You have defended the beliefs of your country and advanced the rights of the downtrodden. You have been the face of hope and mercy in dark places. You have been a force for good in the world. Nothing that has followed — nothing — can tarnish your honor or diminish your accomplishments. To you, and to the honored dead, our country is forever grateful.
In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear, and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I have seen.
I’m no fan of George Bush at all and have still not forgiven him for the war in Iraq among many other failures, but he at least understands the frustration I feel every day seeing this country fail to live up to its potential. And we have something very much in common; we are both apprehensive about the nation’s future that we both gave service to.
And in expressing his concern, George W. Bush rightfully draws a line from 9-11-2001 directly to 1-06-2021. Well, he should draw that line because while it annoys some, it is an incredibly apt analogy. Both the terrorists of 9-11 and 01-06 have an allegiance to an apostate religion, a sick and twisted view of both America and the world at large, and they both represent the forces of evil.
He’s not the only person to do that association. Several writers have made it – as have the producers of the documentary series Frontline in their two-hour show, America After 9-11
George Packer, writing in The Atlantic this month, also draws the same conclusion, noting:
The years after September 11 plunged us into the rough stream of history. Shock after shock followed that first one: the militarization of the homeland; the Iraq War, with its early arrogance and prolonged agony; the use of torture, which undermined Bush’s every high-flown phrase; the financial crisis, which destroyed Americans’ wealth and trust in the system; the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the rise of right-wing populism in America; Donald Trump’s frantic assaults on democracy; and the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed well over 200 times as many Americans as the terrorist attacks did.
In light of this history, September 11 wasn’t a sui generis event coming out of a clear blue sky. It was the first warning that the 21st century would not bring boundless peace and prosperity. Al‑Qaeda was less a primitive throwback to the Middle Ages than an augury of the anti-liberal politics and virulent nationalism that would soon reach around the world, even to America, where the hijackers once aimed their blows.
And yet they didn’t win. After dominating geopolitics in the years following September 11, radical Islamism has, for now at least, receded as a strategic threat. It is no longer normal to hear of mass-casualty suicide bombings in Baghdad and Peshawar, or East African shopping malls turned into shooting galleries, or vans driven into European crowds. Nothing close to the scale of September 11 has occurred on American soil in the past 20 years. During that period, the U.S. spent about $3 trillion on counterterrorism. Some of that money now seems well spent. Recognizing what truly protected us is as important as rejecting what only failed and shamed us.
……Two decades after September 11, we’re no longer those Americans who believed such things would never happen to us, and who, when they did happen, went boldly overseas to rid the world of monsters. Experts now see white-nationalist terrorism as a greater domestic threat than Islamist terrorism. The new fight is for our own democracy. It will require all the restraint and purpose and wisdom that we struggled to muster when the enemy wasn’t us.
Go back and read that last paragraph again. The new fight is for our own democracy. It’s against people equally as evil as the terrorists of 20 years ago and like them in that they cannot, and will not, accept a changing world. They have made a pact with those who would cast aside all the institutions of democracy because they can’t accept that sometimes the other side wins. I can’t escape the conclusion that the enemy we ended up fighting after 9/11 was ourselves.
So now, here we are, 20 years later. Really the only thing different in commemorating this day is the year that is listed on the header. The words basically remain the same – save for the fact that in 2001, there were no Americans actively campaigning to rip up on our Consitution and democratic institutions. January 6th of this year showed us how much Americans as a whole had changed, and not for the better. The words written are basically the same as was written by many writers in years previous – even me.
This brings me to the conclusions I arrived at last year, on the 19th anniversary, and now must note that they remain exactly the same as they were last year. I will not apologize for those words because I know in my heart they are right – and we have to examine the day in the context of what occurred aftward. If really we mean to, never forget, we have to do so.
The bottom line still remains. The very least we owed to the innocent people who died on September 11th, 2001, was to make the country they lived in a better land for their children and wives and husbands. The least we owed to the world that supported us unreservedly that day was to work together to bring peace and stability to a world desperately in need of it.
We did neither. We dishonored their memory by sliding down into a hellish aftermath – squandering the first 20 years of the 21st century and threatening the very nation they lived in and loved with a dark and unnecessary existence of suffering.
We owed them – and ourselves- far better.
There will be some torrid souls who will yell at me – berating me, thinking, “How can you bring up politics on a day like this?”
Allow me to retort. I’m not.
One has to look at 9-11-2001 in the context of both the events of that day and the events that followed it. We deserved – and the sacrifice of innocents demanded – that we do better as a nation. Otherwise, Orwell will have been proven right: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
I remain haunted by the memories of that year before 9-11-2001 and what could have occurred had 9-11 never happened. How so very different the past and future of the United States and the rest of the world would have been.
We failed every one of the 2977 victims of the attack, just as we have failed almost 675,000 people in the United States who died because of COVID. In addition, over a million people are dead who should not have died in the intervening years.
We….and they, deserved better. I will continue to want that world back. And I will fight to get it back.
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Other posts I have made about 9-11:
THE ONLY 9-11 POST YOU NEED TO READ TODAY. (2016)
SO HERE WE ARE AGAIN. GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS, BUT MAKING NO REAL PROGRESS. (2017)
THE 11TH DAY OF THE 9TH MONTH OF THE 17TH YEAR. (2018)
HEADING HOME….. (2010)
I WANT 2000 BACK. (2013)
WHO SHALL REMEMBER THEIR NAMES? (2006)