9/11 - One Year After
At the time, all we had to compare it to
was Pearl Harbor, and we did so. We said the world had
changed. Over 100,000 American Flags were sold at Wal-Mart
before they closed for business that day. Almost 3,000
people lost their lives in that attack. The attack wasn't
the first attack on the World Trade Center buildings, but it was
the first successful major terrorist attack on American soil
since Pearl Harbor.
All the networks, pundits and newspapers
said that the world had changed.
Has it?
After Pearl Harbor Americans geared up to
fight World War II, enlisted in the military in record numbers,
sacrificed by rationing, pulled out of history's worst economic
depression and saw technological advances at a faster pace than
at any time in history. After the Axis was destroyed, the
US and its allies put together a controversial rebuilding plan
that brought all three of the countries of the Axis back into the
international community in a way that made them among our
strongest allies.
Our record since 9/11 is not as good, and
for all the talk that the world has changed, it would seem that
we have SAID the world has changed without us changing much of
anything. This is not to say that those whose lives were
personally affected by the tragedy haven't had a terrible thing
done to them, but if you look at the US objectively, there has
not been the huge change that was predicted. In some ways,
the saddest thing about the attacks of 9/11 is how quickly we
have gone back to our lives as they once were.
After 9/11, people left flowers at
American Embassies, former enemies gave messages of support and
it really looked like the war on terrorism might be a war that
brought the civilized world together. The American Embassy
in Germany had so many flowers left at its door by the German
people that workers were unable to enter. Less than a year
later, the two men running for Germany's highest office are
arguing over which one disagrees with US Policy more. From
support for our country and offers to help, we now have our
Secretary of State is booed at an international conference by
world leaders.
The world was supposed to change, but the
Administration in power still treats the rest of the world as if
their opinions are meaningless, and that unilateralism in the
only moral choice. An opportunity to actually change the
world has been squandered by rhetoric and arrogance, leaving us
to pursue a c0onfused agenda in a world that no longer is behind
us as it was one year ago.
We have gotten the Taliban out of power
in Afghanistan, but we are steadfastly refusing to take part in
the rebuilding of that nation as we did with Germany, Italy and
Japan. We seem to be content with putting the leadership of
the Taliban and Al Qaeda on the run and leaving their former home
to its own devices. Even as Al Qaeda operatives attempt to
assassinate the new leader of Afghanistan, our military is asking
for permission to quit looking for Osama bin Laden, saying that
they can't find him, and don't believe that they can. In
our prison camps that we don't call prison camps, we don't have a
single leader of the terrorist organization, and the war we were
told would consume the Government's every waking moment has been
put on the back burner as President Bush begins his chase of the
great white whale of Saddam Hussein.
Where once we heard "Osama Bin
Laden, Dead or Alive", now we hear that Bin Laden isn't
important anymore and the true heart of terrorism is Iraq...even
though Bin Laden and Hussein were very public rivals, and Bush's
Father's advisors tell him very publicly not to take the route he
is taking.
There was a lot of talk that this would
mean that people would turn away from the "hip ironic"
shows that spoke to jaded Americans and a return to family dramas.
Trash TV's days were numbered and the media would become gentler
and more wholesome. American Idol was the number one show
this summer and Anna Nichole Smith has the number one cable show.
You can either say that this shows that trash TV is still with
us, or that the American people have taken irony and cynicism to
new heights for their entertainment.
The hints that this was not going to be
an event that changed the world were within days of the tragedy
itself when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, powerful leaders of
the religious right wing, spoke on TV saying that the reason for
the attacks was that God had quit protecting the United States
because the US tolerates liberals, feminists, homosexuals and the
rest of their list of usual suspects. Robertson later said
that his words were taken out of context, but as someone who
watched as he made the statement, the only thing out of context
was the fact that he still has a TV "News" show instead
of having to look for work at the local cable access station.
Before the attack, TV news channels were
wallowing in their own crapulence, with shark attack stories,
endless speculation on Chandra Levy (all of which has shown
itself to be baseless other than the fact that she is dead) and
endless argument shows that attempt to polarize the viewership.
Conservatives who have a stranglehold on pundit and commentary
positions on TV and radio would complain that they weren't given
voice in a "liberal" news media, which politicians
would exploit these shows as platforms for their limited agendas,
rarely looking beyond the next sound bite and the next fundraiser.
President Bush himself was raising money faster than the man he
replaced by saying he would not allow the White House to be used
like a PBS studio during pledge week.
Watching the news over the summer after 9/11,
I defy anyone to see any sort of serious change. The war in
Afghanistan has been declared over by the news media; despite the
events showing the country is so unstable that it could quickly
become a Bosnia for the 21st Century. On the news we are
back to shark attacks, American Idol and argument shows that
offer competing sound bites instead of actual discussion. Missing
Children became the Chandra Levy of this summer, yes, it is a
tragedy, but even John Walsh has said that the number of abducted
children is drastically down over the past ten years. The
buildup to Iraq has become almost as big as the buildup to a
Super Bowl and just as meaningful as the 24 hour news machine
looks for another story to put through its grinder, putting aside
the renewed statements of purpose from a year ago. Yes,
it's a changed world, and here's Bill with the latest on Martha
Stewart.
The endless hucksterism of the media also
hasn't changed, unless you want to think about how it has changed
for the worse. Everyone who was remotely connected with 9/11
is treating it like the OJ Trial, with book after book coming out
and available at Target on the endcap. Dan Rather's has a
DVD, the New York Times's has a diary of the reporter's trip to
Afghanistan, and countless others are hyped in a somber e-mail
from Amazon.com telling us the best way to remember the tragedy
and sacrifice of those involved is to spend your money on a book.
Last year, we were told to buy things to
help the country. I know that seems utterly absurd, but the
President himself told us to go to Disney World in one of his
radio addresses because the economy in Florida needed your
patriotism. Car companies had commercial after commercial
showing that America is back, strong and able to stand anything,
and to show that we are, here's 0 % financing on a new car.
At least crooked funeral parlors offer
someone who plays soft music and speaks in comforting tones
instead of telling you to buy with a flag flying behind him.
And trust me, the idea of fighting terrorists who finance their
activities with oil money by buying a SUV shows that despite what
the pundits said, Irony is Not Dead.
I wish the world had changed on September
11th. At the time people gave freely of themselves,
donating blood, blankets, food and care to people they didn't
know. The American people wanted to help and turned to
their leaders asking how. People didn't just flock to
churches; they toned down the rhetoric that has divided along
artificial lines for decades. We could have used the
opportunity to actually DO what President Bush said we should do
during one of the debates, to be humble when exercising our might
and generous with both our ideal and our bounty. At that
point in time, we showed all that is right with our country.
Our citizens showed courage, kindness, and strength, and none of
those things have been harnessed by those who should be leading
us to show that that is what America is about, and those things
can not be ended by any terrorist attack.
But when we went to our leaders, we were
unsatisfied. Their answers seemed hollow and empty. To
honor the dead, we need to shop? To engage the world and
let them know we appreciate their grieving with us, we ask them
to ignore treaties? To show how we will fight for freedom,
we create new international problems that we don't even ask our
allies to help us solve, we just dump them in their lap and say
"We aren't in the business of nation building"? The
White House buys ads saying that drugs cause terrorism when the
only time Afghanistan wasn't exporting drugs was under the
Taliban? We stop the War on Terrorism to go after Saddam
Hussein again?
Has the world changed?
Sadly, no. But it should have.
And it still can. We can still walk to the line and become
the new "Greatest Generation". Our immediate
reaction to 9/11 showed that under the banality of our culture
and the rancor our leaders seem to cultivate, we are a decent
people. There is a challenge in front of us, but each day
it slips further away.
After WWI, American disengaged from the
world, met it on only the terms it wanted to, ignored the crisis
in Germany and Italy, and left Europe on its own so that it
appeased Germany. This caused WWII, and the greatest loss
of life the world has ever known.
After WWII, American became engaged in
the international world and set about rebuilding its enemies,
giving them industry, manpower and, yes, money. No one in
Europe spends nights wondering if Germany will rise again.
The choice is in front of us now.
And we don't make it; it's already been
made.