Sept. 11: A Day Without War
by Amy Goodman
TruthDig.com: Sept. 8, 2010
The ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States should
serve as a moment to reflect on tolerance. It should be a day of peace. Yet
the rising anti-Muslim fervor here, together with the continuing U.S.
military occupation of Iraq and the escalating war in Afghanistan (and
Pakistan), all fuel the belief that the U.S. really is at war with Islam.
Sept. 11, 2001, united the world against terrorism. Everyone, it seemed, was
with the United States, standing in solidarity with the victims, with the
families who lost loved ones. The day will be remembered for generations to
come, for the notorious act of coordinated mass murder. But that was not the
first Sept. 11 to be associated with terror:
Sept. 11, 1973, Chile: Democratically elected President Salvadore Allende
died in a CIA-backed military coup that ushered in a reign of terror under
dictator Augusto Pinochet, in which thousands of Chileans were killed.
Sept. 11, 1977, South Africa: Anti-apartheid leader Stephen Biko was being
beaten in a police van. He died the next day.
Sept. 11, 1990, Guatemala: Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack was murdered
by the U.S.-backed military.
Sept. 9-13, 1971, New York: The Attica prison uprising occurred, during
which New York state troopers killed 39 prisoners and guards and wounded
hundreds of others.
Sept. 11, 1988, Haiti: During a mass led by Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide at
the St. Jean Bosco Church in Port-au-Prince, right-wing militiamen attacked,
killing at least 13 worshippers and injuring at least 77. Aristide would
later be twice elected president, only to be ousted in U.S.-supported coup
d'etats.
If anything, Sept. 11 is a day to remember the victims of terror, all
victims of terror, and to work for peace, like the group September 11th
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Formed by those who lost loved ones on
9/11/2001, their mission could serve as a national call to action: "[T]o
turn our grief into action for peace. By developing and advocating
nonviolent options and actions in the pursuit of justice, we hope to break
the cycles of violence engendered by war and terrorism. Acknowledging our
common experience with all people affected by violence throughout the world,
we work to create a safer and more peaceful world for everyone."
Our "Democracy Now!" news studio was blocks from the twin towers in New York
City. We were broadcasting live as they fell. In the days that followed,
thousands of fliers went up everywhere, picturing the missing, with phone
numbers of family members to call if you recognized someone. These reminded
me of the placards carried by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
Those are the women, wearing white headscarves, who courageously marched,
week after week, carrying pictures of their missing children who disappeared
during the military dictatorship there.
I am reminded, as well, by the steady stream of pictures of young people in
the military killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and now, with increasing
frequency (although pictured less in the news), who kill themselves after
multiple combat deployments.
For each of the U.S. or NATO casualties, there are literally hundreds of
victims in Iraq and Afghanistan whose pictures will never be shown, whose
names we will never know.
While angry mobs continue attempts to thwart the building of an Islamic
community center in lower Manhattan (in a vacant, long-ignored, damaged
building more than two blocks away), an evangelical "minister" in Florida is
organizing a Sept. 11 "International Burn the Koran Day." Gen. David
Petraeus has stated that the burning, which has sparked protests around the
globe, "could endanger troops." He is right. But so does blowing up innocent
civilians and their homes.
As in Vietnam in the 1960s, Afghanistan has a dedicated, indigenous, armed
resistance, and a deeply corrupt group in Kabul masquerading as a central
government. The war is bleeding over into a neighboring country, Pakistan,
just as the Vietnam War spread into Cambodia and Laos.
Right after Sept. 11, 2001, as thousands gathered in parks around New York
City, holding impromptu candlelit vigils, a sticker appeared on signs,
placards and benches. It read, "Our grief is not a cry for war."
This Sept. 11, that message is still-painfully, regrettably-timely.
Let's make Sept. 11 a day without war.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2010 Amy Goodman
***
America's Empire and Endless Wars Are Destroying the World, and Ruining Our
Great Country
For more than 50 years, Washington has subscribed to the absurd notion that
America can police the world with military action. All we've managed to do
is bankrupt our country.
By Terrence McNallY and Andrew Bacevich
Alternet: September 6, 2010 |
Andrew Bacevich speaks with a fairly unique mix of experience, authority,
passion and wisdom in questioning our nation's priorities: specifically our
willingness to place so much of our national identity, wealth, attention,
moral practice, and finally the life and blood of many thousands of our
citizens and millions of those of other countries in the hands of our
military. A professor of history and international relations at Boston
University, Bacevich served twenty-three years in the U.S. Army, retiring
with the rank of colonel. He lost his son in Iraq. A graduate of the U. S.
Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from
Princeton University. He is the author of several books, including The New
American Militarism; The Limits of Power: The End of American
Exceptionalism; and his newest, Washington Rules: America's Path to
Permanent War.
McNally: Your book, Washington Rules, opens with a moment that you offer as
a turning point: could you share that experience?
Bacevich: The moment occurred shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I
was still in the army at the time. I'd spent a considerable time serving in
Germany with my family, but this was the first time we visited Berlin. I
wanted to visit the Brandenburg Gate, because for me, it had been for
decades this quintessential symbol of international politics in our time.
Late on a rainy, very cold winter night, we approached the Gate from the old
East Berlin side and found young men huddled between its columns peddling
bits and pieces of Soviet military gear: buttons, hats, parts of uniforms. I
bought a wristwatch emblazoned with the symbol of the Soviet tank corps,
which broke about two weeks later. It was all junk, and the men, who clearly
were off-duty Russian soldiers, looked anything but ten feet tall.
At that moment - I'm not going to say my worldview was suddenly
transformed - but certain seeds of doubt were planted. I began to wonder if
I had misperceived the "other" that I was now confronting for the first
time. As I considered that possibility, I began to entertain the possibility
that I had misperceived many other things, and so began an intellectual
journey that has continued now for about 20 years.
McNally: You set forth on a process of inquiry and self-education to learn
what had been obscured to you in the past. You began this process while you
were still in the military?
Bacevich: Well, I left the army maybe two years later, and that's when the
questions began to come fast and furious. I came to realize - and it's not
some startling insight - that when you exist inside of an institution,
particularly an institution that has an all-encompassing role such as a
religious order or the military, it's very difficult to view that
institution critically. It's very difficult even to understand some of the
assumptions that define the institution's view of truth. It's only when
you're able to stand apart from the institution, that critical thought
becomes possible. When I left the army in 1992, the process of seeking
to identify and to answer first order questions really began.
For more of this conversation:
http://www.alternet.org/story/148094/america%27s_empire_and_endless_wars_are_destroying_the_world%2C_and_ruining_our_great_country
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