SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Ten Years, Ten Lessons
Sep 10, 2011
September 11, 2001 was a traumatizing day for the United States. The photographs of the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Towers are still haunting, and the senseless loss of life is still painful. Images of the burning trade towers and people jumping to their deaths are indelibly etched into the minds of those who saw them.
U.S. policy decisions after 9/11 have turned what began as a traumatizing day into a traumatizing decade for the United States and the world. It is not clear what our political leaders have learned over the span of these ten years, but here are some lessons that seem clear to me:
1. The United States, despite its vast military power, was and remains vulnerable. Our borders are not inviolate. Our citizens may be attacked on our own territory.
2. The U.S. is not hated for its freedom, as President George W. Bush opined, but for its policies in supporting dictatorial and repressive regimes, particularly in the Middle East. Whatever freedoms the American people had on 9/11 have been greatly restricted over the past decade by the Patriot Act and other measures to increase governmental powers.
3. Wars are costly and they undermine economic prosperity at home. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have overdrawn the U.S. budget and helped to create the current economic malaise in the country.
4. American leaders are willing to lie the country into war, specifically the war in Iraq. We should have learned this lesson from the Vietnam War. There has been no accountability for the initiation of an aggressive war, as there was for the German leaders who were tried and convicted at Nuremburg following World War II for their crimes against peace.
5. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have injured and killed large numbers of civilians. For each terrorist who has been killed, more terrorists have been recruited to expand their numbers. What the Bush administration called the "Global War on Terror," and the Obama administration prefers to call the "Overseas Contingency Operation," is unwinnable by military means and likely to be endless.
6. A volunteer military can be used and abused with little response from the American people. Large numbers of volunteer soldiers have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
7. Despite the illegality and moral repugnance of torture, American officials have been willing to engage in it and, as in the case of Dick Cheney, many remain unrepentant for its use.
8. President Obama's expansion of the war in Afghanistan has shown that there is bipartisan political support for keeping the flames of war burning.
After the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, it had the sympathy of the world. By its policies of endless war, the U.S. long ago lost those sympathies. If the U.S. wants to find a more decent foundation on which to rest its policies, I would hope that it would be based upon these two larger lessons:
9. War is not the answer to dealing with the threat of terrorism.
10. The way forward is with policies that are legal (under U.S. and international law), moral (demonstrating appropriate care for the innocent) and thoughtful (not based in hubris, alienating to the rest of the world and conducive to creating more terrorists).
Sadly, at the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. seems lacking in sufficient self-reflection to grapple with these lessons.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
David Krieger
David Krieger is the founder and former president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, an organization that has worked since 1982 to educate and advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.
September 11, 2001 was a traumatizing day for the United States. The photographs of the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Towers are still haunting, and the senseless loss of life is still painful. Images of the burning trade towers and people jumping to their deaths are indelibly etched into the minds of those who saw them.
U.S. policy decisions after 9/11 have turned what began as a traumatizing day into a traumatizing decade for the United States and the world. It is not clear what our political leaders have learned over the span of these ten years, but here are some lessons that seem clear to me:
1. The United States, despite its vast military power, was and remains vulnerable. Our borders are not inviolate. Our citizens may be attacked on our own territory.
2. The U.S. is not hated for its freedom, as President George W. Bush opined, but for its policies in supporting dictatorial and repressive regimes, particularly in the Middle East. Whatever freedoms the American people had on 9/11 have been greatly restricted over the past decade by the Patriot Act and other measures to increase governmental powers.
3. Wars are costly and they undermine economic prosperity at home. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have overdrawn the U.S. budget and helped to create the current economic malaise in the country.
4. American leaders are willing to lie the country into war, specifically the war in Iraq. We should have learned this lesson from the Vietnam War. There has been no accountability for the initiation of an aggressive war, as there was for the German leaders who were tried and convicted at Nuremburg following World War II for their crimes against peace.
5. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have injured and killed large numbers of civilians. For each terrorist who has been killed, more terrorists have been recruited to expand their numbers. What the Bush administration called the "Global War on Terror," and the Obama administration prefers to call the "Overseas Contingency Operation," is unwinnable by military means and likely to be endless.
6. A volunteer military can be used and abused with little response from the American people. Large numbers of volunteer soldiers have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
7. Despite the illegality and moral repugnance of torture, American officials have been willing to engage in it and, as in the case of Dick Cheney, many remain unrepentant for its use.
8. President Obama's expansion of the war in Afghanistan has shown that there is bipartisan political support for keeping the flames of war burning.
After the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, it had the sympathy of the world. By its policies of endless war, the U.S. long ago lost those sympathies. If the U.S. wants to find a more decent foundation on which to rest its policies, I would hope that it would be based upon these two larger lessons:
9. War is not the answer to dealing with the threat of terrorism.
10. The way forward is with policies that are legal (under U.S. and international law), moral (demonstrating appropriate care for the innocent) and thoughtful (not based in hubris, alienating to the rest of the world and conducive to creating more terrorists).
Sadly, at the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. seems lacking in sufficient self-reflection to grapple with these lessons.
David Krieger
David Krieger is the founder and former president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, an organization that has worked since 1982 to educate and advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.
September 11, 2001 was a traumatizing day for the United States. The photographs of the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Towers are still haunting, and the senseless loss of life is still painful. Images of the burning trade towers and people jumping to their deaths are indelibly etched into the minds of those who saw them.
U.S. policy decisions after 9/11 have turned what began as a traumatizing day into a traumatizing decade for the United States and the world. It is not clear what our political leaders have learned over the span of these ten years, but here are some lessons that seem clear to me:
1. The United States, despite its vast military power, was and remains vulnerable. Our borders are not inviolate. Our citizens may be attacked on our own territory.
2. The U.S. is not hated for its freedom, as President George W. Bush opined, but for its policies in supporting dictatorial and repressive regimes, particularly in the Middle East. Whatever freedoms the American people had on 9/11 have been greatly restricted over the past decade by the Patriot Act and other measures to increase governmental powers.
3. Wars are costly and they undermine economic prosperity at home. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have overdrawn the U.S. budget and helped to create the current economic malaise in the country.
4. American leaders are willing to lie the country into war, specifically the war in Iraq. We should have learned this lesson from the Vietnam War. There has been no accountability for the initiation of an aggressive war, as there was for the German leaders who were tried and convicted at Nuremburg following World War II for their crimes against peace.
5. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have injured and killed large numbers of civilians. For each terrorist who has been killed, more terrorists have been recruited to expand their numbers. What the Bush administration called the "Global War on Terror," and the Obama administration prefers to call the "Overseas Contingency Operation," is unwinnable by military means and likely to be endless.
6. A volunteer military can be used and abused with little response from the American people. Large numbers of volunteer soldiers have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
7. Despite the illegality and moral repugnance of torture, American officials have been willing to engage in it and, as in the case of Dick Cheney, many remain unrepentant for its use.
8. President Obama's expansion of the war in Afghanistan has shown that there is bipartisan political support for keeping the flames of war burning.
After the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, it had the sympathy of the world. By its policies of endless war, the U.S. long ago lost those sympathies. If the U.S. wants to find a more decent foundation on which to rest its policies, I would hope that it would be based upon these two larger lessons:
9. War is not the answer to dealing with the threat of terrorism.
10. The way forward is with policies that are legal (under U.S. and international law), moral (demonstrating appropriate care for the innocent) and thoughtful (not based in hubris, alienating to the rest of the world and conducive to creating more terrorists).
Sadly, at the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. seems lacking in sufficient self-reflection to grapple with these lessons.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.