// September 13th, 2006 // No Comments » // Business & Politics, Security & Privacy
I was working from home on 9/11/01, holding my 3-week-old daughter in my arms when the second plane hit — a vision that is forever seared our nation’s collective memory. Every ounce of my body wanted to, at that moment, do something to stop what I saw happening. To jump through the TV and be there, to roll back time…anything. When the first tower fell I wasn’t physically able to feel the full measure of pain it elicited. I was just numb. By days end I, like the President, wanted vengeance above all.
In the five years that have passed, a lot of progress has been made in the war on terror. We have gained much, and lost much. I thought I’d take a few minutes to write a few thoughts that have been on my mind about 9/11.
Just this week I began reading the official report of the 9/11 commission. It’s really a fascinating read and not the dry fodder I expected from a government publication. I’m about half-way through it at this point and I find myself having mixed feelings as we pass the anniversary milestone…again — feelings muddied by both the election-year politicking and the anxiety the anniversary news coverage brings back to the surface.
We Must Act Preemptively, AND Be Responsible Stewards Of A Coherent Foreign Policy
Reading the 9/11 report has strengthened my feelings that as a nation we have every responsibility to act preemptively to prevent terrorist attacks against our people, unilaterally if necessary, as no one is as interested in protecting us as we are. The trouble is that as a superpower, acting unilaterally places our actions and motives under intense scrutiny by the world community, and losing the moral high-ground, which unfortunately we so often seem to do, reinforces feelings of mistrust and feeds impressions of an imperialistic will.
Our leaders must articulate a sensible, coherent foreign policy that can be understood by rational, civilized societies, and let their actions clearly support that policy. If we expect others to view our democracy as a beacon of light and hope — a shining city on a hill — we must behave in a manner consistent with our founding ideals. When we don’t we must admit our mistake and, as best as we can, make it right and whole again. Too many times in the past five years we have failed to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and call our leaders to account. This has damaged both our credibility in the world and our ability to prosecute the war on terror.
This must change…soon.
We Can’t Preserve Our Way Of Life By Compromising Our Freedoms
Here at home, our civil liberties have, at times since the attack, tread on thin ice. I believe our President to be a good, moral man and that the NSA wiretapping and otherwise heavy domestic surveillance are being used as they argue to track individuals and groups that truly appear to be engaged in malfeasance. The trouble is that it can all be so easily abused, and everyone knows that. We’ve all been lied to at least once by our government, so how can people not believe that the domestic investigative power won’t be abused, and given both the broad powers afforded to the intelligence and investigative bureaucracies, and the limits effectively placed on Congerssional oversight, abused in an unprecedented way.
Why Are We In Iraq…Again?
The other feelings that have been strengthened by reading the report is that our foray into Iraq has been, to be polite, unwise. Who would argue that Saddam is a “bad guy” and that given the opportunity, he would have loved to have a few WMD to gain some leverage, but the evidence wasn’t there, and the trust in our government to tell us the truth that was so strong after 9/11 has been broken, along with the political goodwill of our allies (and even a few enemies) around the world.
Many Americans feel misled into an unceasing commitment of scarce resources and precious lives to a war in a country that, based on the knowledge we had even at the time, presented no significant threat to our national security and had no part whatsoever in 9/11.
The commitment of American lives into harms way is the most serious decision a President can make. Our military asks for nothing except our support and that the cause is just. In return they are willing to give all. Speaking personally, our commitment of American lives to the cause of deposing Saddam Hussein, with little but the pretense of his WMD ambitions built on a house of cards of shaky intelligence, is as tragic a legacy of 9/11 as that fateful day itself.
The President keeps telling us we’re “Safer, but still not safe”. Well, sure. It doesn’t bear repeating in those terms and that oversimplified articulation serves only to feed the anxiety of a skittish middle-America and offer a dull warning that re-electing the President’s party is the only way we can become safe. That’s just not true.
The New McCarthyism
Another issue that has really roiled me lately is the language used in describing points-of-view and people who pose an alternative perspective to the Administration’s line. To characterize public dissent as tantamount to supporting the terrorists is outrageously reprehensible. Our liberties must not be sacrificed on the alter of national security. We can have both, we shouldn’t be made to choose one or the other. Competent leaders recognize this and can lucidly articulate a national vision that includes both.
The Pakistan Quagmire
People want to feel like we’re making real progress to keep 9/11 from happening ever again and that the deaths of that day are avenged. Capturing or killing Bin Laden and Al Qaeda’s top leadership would have gone a long way toward that end. That hasn’t occurred. I’ll speculate that most Americans feel the human tragedy of that horrible day has yet to be avenged. Using World War II as an example, who would have felt that victory was complete without news of Hitler’s demise? I feel no different today with Bin Laden and his lieutenants on the run. Of course decapitating the al Qaeda leadership won’t alone solve the terrorism issue. But in this case, as in so many others, vengance alone is just cause for an unyielding and determined pursuit of justice.
This pursuit has become especially challenging as Pakistan has become the new Afghanistan. We’re diplomatically hamstrung in dealing with them given, among other things, how Musharraf came to power and their nuclear ambitions (which also hampers our military options). Our options to compel Pakistan’s cooperation seem limited, but money has always been a great motivator, and we can always get more money.
There is no question this is a different kind of war. You can’t rationalize with a group for whom death is a reward, whose talking points shift with the tides, who have nothing to negotiate for, who seem to have transcended policy disagreements and simply wish for our destruction. Those responsible for 9/11 must be captured or killed.
The principal al Qaeda leadership appears by all accounts to be hiding in Pakistan. We have to find a way to get in there and get them, period. The fact that we have been either unwilling or unable to bring our considerable military and intelligence capabilities to bear in solving this issue makes me more than a little anxious that our either priorities have been horribly misguided or our capabilities aren’t what I once believed them to be. You could probably safely argue either point.
Where Are The Democrats?
A viable alternative vision of American foreign policy hasn’t been offered up the Democratic (or any other) party. I don’t know if this speaks to a dearth of Democratic leadership, intra-party dissent on a viable platform, or what. It’s deeply concerning though to have so few ideas coming across the aisle. It seems the Republicans dominate the public debate on the issues of our time and a balanced, bi-partisan dialogue is something we’ve left in the rubble of 9/11.
Maybe they’re hoping dissatisfaction will somehow grow organically and foist them into power. Indeed it may, but without a clear vision and a coherent plan to solve the issues we face, the protest votes that get them into office will be the same ones that get them out and we’ll be back where we are now — “safer, but not safe”.
Reality Checks and Real Progress
In truth, we’ve not been attacked on U.S. soil on any significant scale since 9/11. You could accurately argue this is due in large part to the administration’s efforts over the past 5 years. But it’s hard for Americans to contextualize how central a role in their lives the threat of terrorism should play. By statistical standards it should be a very, very small part. However inasmuch as it is continually rehashed in our 24/7 media coverage and “Breaking News” culture, it’s hard to put aside. In reality, terrorists of any stripe pose little threat to our nation or our economy, unless we let them. Unfortunately in too many cases since 9/11, we have let fear reign. Perceived threats, exacerbated by fear-mongering for political gain has created a culture of fear disproportionate to the real threat. Rationality must re-enter our public discourse again to allow American’s to give the real threat of terrorism proper context in their lives.
History shows us that good leaders can make all the difference in bringing peace, preserving a way of life, and giving people the courage, will, and hope to get through the difficult times. Think Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Franklin, and Churchill. The past five years has seen far too little of that character of leader.
Wise, articulate leadership is needed now more than ever — leaders that will help us lift our nation above the discourse of fear to a brighter day when our collective conscious is dominated once again by belief that our children and grandchildren will inherit a world made better by the efforts of our generation.
Let this be a time future generations can look back upon and see that evil was defeated because good men did more than just something, they did the right thing.
