America Remembers 9/11, Forgets Its Own Crimes
Perhaps this may put me in the minority, but for me, the fuss over 9/11 has been, above all, a demonstration of the self-absorbed worldview of the majority of Americans. There is no question that the death of over 3,000 innocent people on that day was, and still is, a tragedy. What is so irritating is how America’s reaction to that terrible day displayed the fundamental ignorance and self-centered attitude of America as a nation.
Terrorism is not new. It has existed in various forms for far longer than humanity would like to admit. The large scale bombing of cities during World War II by both sides provides one particularly fearsome example of this. Even if one accepts the narrowest definition of the term – which would be the killing of innocent people by stateless individuals or groups to achieve political aims through fear-then 9/11 is merely one of the more recent outbreaks. Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, Indonesia, Spain, France, Russia, Germany, England, and of course much of the Middle East have all suffered. As far as body counts go, there have been many more victims of Islamist militant terrorist violence in places like Algeria, where Islamists have killed thousands since 1992, and the Sudan, where counting corpses is an exercise in morbid futility.
The major difference between the innocents murdered on 9/11 and those who have been slaughtered by terrorists on countless other occasions is primarily one of nationality. Fighting terrorism has now become a world issue, according to the United States, because we have finally suffered a major attack. And of course, as has so often happened in the past, America’s problem became the world’s problem.
The ritualized mourning on the anniversary of 9/11 has a somewhat hollow ring to it when it is carried out by a people who, for the most part, are all too ignorant of truly massive injustices, in the world made possible, directly and indirectly, by the actions of the United States government. I would feel more patriotic about 9/11 if the United States had ever made official atonement for supporting some of the most murderous regimes of the century. During the Cold War, the Indonesian army was trained and equipped by several American governments who never spoke out about the atrocities that military helped to perpetrate in places like Bali and East Timor. Another choice example would be the brutal violence in the impoverished Central American nations of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica during the 1970s and 1980s, with the Reagan administration in particular funneling weapons and covert training to militia groups that killed civilians by the tens of thousands. The most shocking aspect being the secret, CIA directed School of the Americas, founded in the late 1940s and running well into the 1980s, that helped train a generation of recruits in the methods of assassination and torture.
And what of the Islamist militants who killed 3,000 innocent people on 9/11? What motivation could they possibly have had? Were they harbingers of a new fascism, as the Bush administration would have us believe? Or was their misguided, murderous scheme prompted by other thoughts besides fringe religious dogma? Perhaps some of them were unhappy with American support of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies, with a human rights record that would make Francisco Franco blush. Perhaps they found American rhetoric about peace in the Middle East hollow, after the United States supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein during his bloody war with Iran during the 1980s. But not to worry. America, ever the beacon of freedom, also supplied the Iranians with weapons soon after, with geo-strategists at the top levels of government agreeing that it was best for American interests in the Middle East if the long, bloody struggle lasted as long as possible. (By the time it ended, well over a million people had died, many killed by American made weapons.) Supporters of this decision justify it by pointing out, quite accurately, that the post 1979 Islamic Revolutionary Iran was a dangerous threat to the region’s stability, as the charred American embassy and subsequent hostage crisis of 1979-1980 revealed. But one problem of using the Iranian example to justify cynical realpolitik is that the Shah-the oppressive ruler who was overthrown by the 1979 revolution-was very strongly supported by the United States. Of course the Iranian people were angry!
Of course, just because the American government has been responsible for these and many other transgressions against human rights-and sound judgment – does not justify the murder of civilians by Al Qaida or anyone else. The message of the militant Islamist terrorists is far more hollow, and its cause even more riddled by hypocrisy, cynicism, and violence, than our own. But terrorist wrongdoings are, to a certain extent, beside the point here, which is that all murder of innocents and cynical abuse of human rights in the name of national security or geopolitical gain is a tragic and stupid waste.
In its own, twisted way, 9/11 demonstrated an extremely maladjusted, murderous expression of an anger shared by many people in the world at America’s massive violations of human rights since World War II, all committed while America claimed to be fighting for freedom and justice.
Sadly, one of the chief messages of 9/11 remembrance in this country is that the life of an American is worth far more than the life of an Iraqi, a Guatemalan, or a Sudanese. Since 9/11, far more than 3,000 innocent Iraqis have died as a direct or indirect result of America’s invasion of Iraq, which was justified by supposed Iraqi involvement with Al Qaida. Countless thousands of innocents died because the American government decided that it was worth the accidental killing of thousands of people to unseat Saddam Hussein. Clearly he was not removed upon moral grounds, because the United States government formerly had not considered Saddam’s murder hundreds of thousands of his own people a sufficient reason for intervention during the 1980s and 1990s. The movie “Blackhawk Down,” set during the American intervention to help bring peace and stability to Somalia, serves as a perfect example of America’s sense of relative worth of life. As the movie ends, the names of the handful of American soldiers killed in a certain street battle in Somalia are displayed on the screen. Then, almost as an afterthought, comes the statement; “5,000 Somalis also died.” And with that, the movie ends.
I urge my fellow Americans to never forget 9/11. But at the same time, they should also remember the suffering of others. This nation mourns the nearly 60,000 wasted American lives in Vietnam. Yet that country suffered millions of deaths due to American action, and the country still bears the scars of all of tons of Agent Orange and other toxins which continue to kill and cause hideous birth defects in large swaths of that nation. In Vietnam, people are still dying because of an American war for “freedom” for someone else.
If the lofty ideals that American soldiers repeatedly die in the name of are to be lived up to, than we have a long way to go. If all men are created equal, then we owe a considerable moral debt to various people around the world. I mourn for the death of 3,000 innocent people on 9/11, but I don’t believe they deserved to die any more than the millions of other civilians who were sacrificed to secure America’s realpolitik foreign policy goals in the past century.
Maybe I shouldn’t still be surprised by America’s skewed value of human life. After all, this is a country that hems and haws over whether or not to help end genocides in Rwanda and the Sudan, which claim the lives of millions, while in the same breath turning half the Caribbean upside down in a frantic search for an American high school student gone missing on a spring break vacation. And to think, some people still express indignation that foreigners sometimes treat American tourists rudely.
There are those readers out there who will be tempted to write my arguments off as no more than the disgruntled ravings of an “America hater.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. I am grateful for all the opportunity this great land has provided me. But just as I wouldn’t stand by silently if my father became an alcoholic and started driving drunk, I will not remain silent as my country makes a mockery of the values it claims to fight for.
So forgive me. I won’t succumb to false, self-congratulatory sentiment. I won’t go see the cheesy Nicholas Cage movie about heroic firemen. I won’t pull out those tacky “I heart NY” T-shirts. Come on, people, be honest. Most of you still think New York is rude and obnoxious, you’re just sad that it got bombed. They should put that on a T-shirt.
My fellow Americans: wake up and listen to the cries of millions of grieving families who have suffered because of Uncle Sam. Cry about children worldwide suffering from needless hunger, from tyrannical governments who we send money, and dying from treatable diseases. Try making a dent in that. Then I’ll wear your stupid T-shirt.
