The Legacy of 9/11

The collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center made it possible for the United States to wage wars that it had long been itching to wage.

Tony Blair still hasn’t had enough. Now he has put regime change in Iran on his wish list, as if his other war on terror maneuvers in Iraq and Afghanistan had ended as great successes. As if his deployment of troops there had resulted in bringing in democracy and human rights.

The “war on terror” that was quickly expanded after the 9/11 attacks also quickly became a war against anyone who opposed U.S. policy. Tony Blair’s latest statements seamlessly continue that tradition. It’s all about a battle between those who wanted an open world and the others — like Iran — who want to remain closed. That ceases to have anything to do with terrorism. It obviously concerns other things. When Tony Blair announced that along with the military campaign, hearts and minds also had to be won over, that only shows how catastrophically wrong the balance of power is distributed.

That isn’t the legacy of 9/11, it is what has been created from the legacy of 9/11: a war between East and West, an armed struggle between cultures.

On Sept. 11 we stood in front of our television sets — what we were witnessing had torn us from our chairs — and watched as bodies fell from the skyscrapers. They were people who chose suicide over the slow death of asphyxiation by smoke inhalation. They had no other options. They were helpless. Even the greatest optimists among us on that day saw the fragility of our existence. Sept. 11 was a day of impotence. A few determined lunatics were enough to disrupt New York City, the capital of the 20th century.

As the twin towers collapsed, anger grew along with the impotence, anger against the unknown criminals and their unknown bosses. Impotence combined with rage formed a dangerous new element. The Machiavellian exploitation of that new element nourished U.S. policy over the ensuing years. The United States committed no acts, however unconstitutional, that couldn’t be justified with the excuse that it was part of the “war on terror.”

Wars that the United States had been itching for years to wage were now waged. Reasons for invasion were made up out of whole cloth. The result: a divided United States and the Western world divided along with it. Terrorism had always existed. Even terrorism motivated by religion was nothing new. But a new novel was written after 9/11.

It was the story of cultural war. The good guys and the bad guys were re-categorized. Those Westerners who invaded a country and called it a crusade belonged to the good side. Whoever blew up a house in the name of Islam belonged to the bad side. This new novel which doesn’t differentiate between people according to their deeds, but by how they justify their deeds, is the most devastating legacy of 9/11.

Ten years ago, people of all nationalities and religions jumped from the windows of the World Trade Center desperately trying to escape the smoke and flames. Among the nearly 2,800 men and women that perished in the rubble were Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and on and on. And all of them were helpless. Every one of us was. And all of us are still helpless. That’s the lesson of 9/11. Absolute security is an impossibility. A few lunatics with no allegiance to any country can kill thousands. A few lunatics who profess allegiance to a country can kill hundreds of thousands, even millions.

This feeling causes anger. Since Sept. 11, destructive forces were unleashed by both sides. In his mind, Tony Blair calls for yet more destruction. Hopefully it will remain only in his mind. A whole new lesson has been learned in the past few months. Impotence and anger can also be coupled with intelligence and skill. The protest movements in North Africa and Asia Minor help the world get away from the legacy of Sept. 11. The question of democracy and human rights is no longer a matter of Western wars against oppressive regimes. They originate in the East, and they also have to begin originating in the West as well. We’re far too quick to give up our freedoms under the pretense of defending them. The real cultural war — the battle for democracy and human rights — is fought in every culture and it is fought every day.