Sept. 11: A Day Without War

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.