9/11: What should we remember?
Blogs and opinion columns across the country and across the political spectrum (that is, the artificial conservative-liberal political spectrum) are no doubt calling for Americans to “remember 9/11″ and similar robotic utterances. But what are we supposed to remember, exactly? Like most people, I was shocked at the 9/11 attacks and had the natural human urge to lash out at whoever committed those atrocities and anyone who might be vaguely related to them. Thus did I support the American invasion of Afghanistan, and thus did I proudly serve in the fourth troop rotation of Operation Enduring Freedom, stationed at Bagram Airfield with my National Guard unit.
But I’ve studied and learned a lot since that time and have since removed myself from the unhealthy nationalistic rage that previously clouded my faculties. The fact is that the United States attacked a country (yes, a country controlled by a primitive, violent, despicable regime…like many others around the world) that was not threatening American citizens. It’s common knowledge that humans have a tendency to sort themselves into tribal divisions. The state has taken full advantage of that unfortunate evolutionary holdover and convinced a great many people from both of the state-sponsored parties that anyone who opposes the U.S. government or its totalitarian and interventionist policies actually opposes the American people and our “freedom.” Yes, some of the Islamic fundamentalists probably oppose our freedom…but so do the Christian fundamentalists who live here among us! The main problem is our government, despite the wishes of most of the people it rules, has taken it upon itself to try to remake the world in its own image (which is especially contradictory and destructive since there are so many different ideas within the state apparatus of what the image actually is).
What it comes down to is:
1) The people who attacked us were murderous religious maniacs who happened to be using a particular country as a base of operations.
2) We had no right to invade either Afghanistan or (most certainly) Iraq (though the people who lost family members in the 9/11 attacks would, I think, be justified in hiring private security forces to seek out and capture or kill bin Laden and his co-conspirators).
3) Continuing the support of our presence in either country is not much different than supporting a mugger who has begun to beat and rob an innocent person based on the argument that this person, now confused and disoriented, is ripe for further mugging by others until we “stabilize” his situation.
In memory of the terrible events of 9/11/01, I suggest we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of American troops and other personnel and money from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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