Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Some thoughts on September 13, 2001
This isn't a nicely organized essay at this point. I'm just posting it as some thoughts and observations I jotted down a couple of days after 9-11-2001.
***
It's horrible to see, after so many people have been brought together by this tragedy, expressing an impulse to help one another and the victims -- along with this, to see another stream of reaction, of forced alienation instead of help, of ugly bigotry and violence starting to erupt against innocent people who are as horrified by this tragedy as the rest of us. For anyone to think that just because someone is a Muslim that they had anything more to do with this act of terrorism than a Jew, a Christian, or a Buddhist, to see someone using this tragedy to justify ugly, degrading bigotry and violence, is to me even more upsetting than the act of terrorism itself. There really is no difference in the underlying impulse.
There are people in this country, as in every country, who are full of resentment for whatever personal or political reasons; and, our country having received an injury of the magnitude that it just has, all it takes is the slightest nudge for such a person to now think he has carte blanche to wreak whatever "revenge" he feels like. For this reason, it is the vital responsibility of the leaders of this country not to make statements that feed into this, not to go about talking of "vengeance" and "war" and so on, not to let their own feelings run away with them in the heat of the moment, not to say things that, after a couple of days of debate, they might see as not quite intelligent. I respect Mayor Guiliani for speaking out emphatically against such acts even before they happened, and our national leaders have the responsibility to take the same stand with even more emphasis.
Furthermore, for this country to take violent action, out of the emotion of the moment, that harms even one innocent person in the Middle East or anywhere else, is to degrade the United States to a level no higher than the terrorists themselves, and it would be committing an injustice that would raise the cycle of violence to unheard of levels, just as it has in places like Bosnia and Israel. There is no way to win a "war" against terrorism by brute force. You will never kill off everybody who is your enemy; you will just make more enemies in the process, and new terrorist leaders will arise, the violence will escalate, as it has in so many places around the world, and no one will suffer more in the process than the people of the United States; not only from terrorism, but from destruction of this country from within by the process of war and elimination of freedom. The crimes of a government against other countries are visited on its own people.
The terrorism that occurred in this country was an act of insanity and a crime and should be addressed as a crime, as it has been elsewhere in the world. To make it into a national war, would rebound against the people of the United States and is the worst thing this government could do. This situation needs to be handled in a much more intelligent, well-thought-out and very carefully planned fashion, using all the tools available to government; not just a hammer fist. The consequences of any action should be considered very realistically, and the will of the entire American people -- not just a few loud ones -- should be taken into consideration.
The population of Afghanistan has already suffered terribly under its current loathsome government. For the United States to now come in, in the name of "freedom," and destroy what is left of their country, would win us only more and more hatred in the world. Even if the threat of violence were used, bin Ladin should be extradited, or even kidnapped if necessary, and tried in a court of law. Anything less than this will degrade us to his level.
This isn't a nicely organized essay at this point. I'm just posting it as some thoughts and observations I jotted down a couple of days after 9-11-2001.
***
It's horrible to see, after so many people have been brought together by this tragedy, expressing an impulse to help one another and the victims -- along with this, to see another stream of reaction, of forced alienation instead of help, of ugly bigotry and violence starting to erupt against innocent people who are as horrified by this tragedy as the rest of us. For anyone to think that just because someone is a Muslim that they had anything more to do with this act of terrorism than a Jew, a Christian, or a Buddhist, to see someone using this tragedy to justify ugly, degrading bigotry and violence, is to me even more upsetting than the act of terrorism itself. There really is no difference in the underlying impulse.
There are people in this country, as in every country, who are full of resentment for whatever personal or political reasons; and, our country having received an injury of the magnitude that it just has, all it takes is the slightest nudge for such a person to now think he has carte blanche to wreak whatever "revenge" he feels like. For this reason, it is the vital responsibility of the leaders of this country not to make statements that feed into this, not to go about talking of "vengeance" and "war" and so on, not to let their own feelings run away with them in the heat of the moment, not to say things that, after a couple of days of debate, they might see as not quite intelligent. I respect Mayor Guiliani for speaking out emphatically against such acts even before they happened, and our national leaders have the responsibility to take the same stand with even more emphasis.
Furthermore, for this country to take violent action, out of the emotion of the moment, that harms even one innocent person in the Middle East or anywhere else, is to degrade the United States to a level no higher than the terrorists themselves, and it would be committing an injustice that would raise the cycle of violence to unheard of levels, just as it has in places like Bosnia and Israel. There is no way to win a "war" against terrorism by brute force. You will never kill off everybody who is your enemy; you will just make more enemies in the process, and new terrorist leaders will arise, the violence will escalate, as it has in so many places around the world, and no one will suffer more in the process than the people of the United States; not only from terrorism, but from destruction of this country from within by the process of war and elimination of freedom. The crimes of a government against other countries are visited on its own people.
The terrorism that occurred in this country was an act of insanity and a crime and should be addressed as a crime, as it has been elsewhere in the world. To make it into a national war, would rebound against the people of the United States and is the worst thing this government could do. This situation needs to be handled in a much more intelligent, well-thought-out and very carefully planned fashion, using all the tools available to government; not just a hammer fist. The consequences of any action should be considered very realistically, and the will of the entire American people -- not just a few loud ones -- should be taken into consideration.
The population of Afghanistan has already suffered terribly under its current loathsome government. For the United States to now come in, in the name of "freedom," and destroy what is left of their country, would win us only more and more hatred in the world. Even if the threat of violence were used, bin Ladin should be extradited, or even kidnapped if necessary, and tried in a court of law. Anything less than this will degrade us to his level.
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