Not sad but not excited by the death of a terrorist

When something is thrown upwards, there is a point at which the object’s upward momentum and the force of gravity are equal. For some time period — even if it is incredibly small — when the object hangs suspended. That is the emotional space I have occupied since learning about Osama bin Laden’s death. Any relief/closure/positive emotion has been tempered by my normal instinct that death is bad and deaths, even of bad people, are not meant to be celebrated.

Now, I should confess a few things. I grew up on Long Island and live in Washington, DC. My emotional location vis-à-vis 9/11 had been a strange place. It remains one of the worst days of my life and few things would make me happier than seeing the towers built back exactly the way there were and despite knowing New York as well as I know any place on earth, I still get lost in lower Manhattan sometimes because I still look for the WTC when I get out of the subway. Growing up, that was my compass in the city. It may always be. These are the reasons, my liberal friends tell me my opinion of anything 9/11 related is less valid because I am too close to it.

At the same time, I will never think we should do to ourselves what the terrorists could not; destroy out way of life and take away our belief in the ideals that inspired our republic. Racial intolerance cannot be mistaken for vigilance against terrorism. We cannot convince anyone outside of the US  to believe that we believe in the importance of the rule of law if we do not apply it uniformly within the US. And the Bill of Rights is as important today as it was on 9/10/2001. These are the reasons my conservative friends tell me my opinions on this subject are less valid because I “do not understand the impact 9/11 had on America.”

You can see the paradox. One might think these opinions would give me more reason to hate Osama bin Laden but I don’t. I can’t. He doesn’t deserve that. The closest thing I have had to “joy” at seeing him be killed was when I laughed at a photo of President Obama that had the caption “I am sorry it took me so long to get you my birth certificate, I was busy killing Osama bin Laden.”

At the end of the day though, if I were to become the kind of person who celebrates any loss of life — even of someone as reprehensible as this mass killer — I just become more like them and I don’t want that.

The lessons of 9/11

I wanted to write about this in terms of how we will win the war on terrorism because our society is based on ideals that are superior to those of our enemies.  Ours is based on a combination of the importance of the rule of law and individual liberty.  I wanted to talk about my anger at the Washington Post when they published an editorial this summer stating that terrorism cases should be tried in special courts because our national security would be compromised by holding them in regular criminal courts – an opinion that misses the point of our country.  If the events of 9/11/01 should have taught us anything it is that we cannot let Osama bin Laden win by doing to ourselves what he wanted to do; bring down our way of life.  I have said since that day that I would rather die in an open society than live in a closed one.  I wanted to stress the importance of our legal system by pointing out that by treating people we suspect want to hurt us the same way we treat other criminals we achieve several goals.  We remove their martyr status (most al Qaeda training manuals warn that as soon as anyone is captured by the US they will face horrors that I cannot even write about and THEY ARE READY FOR THAT). We cannot win this war by force, we can only win by leading through example.

I also wanted to point out that the world did not change on that day seven years ago.  Moreover, the US was not changed.  As Thomas Friedman likes to say, “If you don’t visit the bad neighborhoods, they will visit you.”  That’s what happened that day.  We got a nasty taste of what much of the world experiences.  And no, this wasn’t the ‘worst attack ever.’  Really.

All of this is a moot point however because no matter what I say, people claim I am biased.  And it is true.  September 11^th was the worst day of my life.  When I say it was national tragedy – and I will never think it wasn’t – I am told it is too personal for me.  I grew up in New York and live in Washington, DC.  On that fateful day I worked at the UN, in Washington, DC.  I have only been able to look at the NYC skyline once since then and I still get lost in Manhattan, a city I practically grew up in, because the twin towers were my compass.  I get out of the subway and look for them to tell me which way is south.  I was there in July and got lost leaving a subway stop I have used about a thousand times.

This is all important because when I bristle at the things we have done to ourselves since then evoke the response that I do not fully understand the gravity of that day.  People tell me I am not a patriot and that I just ‘don’t get it.’  Oh, trust me.  I get it. 

This past week I kept to my normal tradition of watching really depressing specials about that day, which typically makes me feel horrible but I noticed something that day.  When they were talking about what was happening – and most terrorism experts knew almost immediately who had done it – the first (second, third, fourth…) response from law enforcement was that there are certain problems inherent to living in a free society.  That no amount of intelligence or restrictions we place on ourselves will completely protect us from people who want to do us harm.  One man warned of an exaggerated response, that we would be scared but we need to remember all the benefits our way of life affords us.

That is what keeps me from hating Osama bin Laden.  Granted, it takes work sometimes but I refuse to hate him.  It’s just another way he wins and I will not let that happen.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Six years ago this morning

I was at my desk when my boss came in and asked me if I had seen the news.  As part of my job was to monitor US news coverage of certain topics I assumed she was asking about that and it was what I had just started to do and was really irritated that she had not given me more than a few minutes to finish.  I was wrong, she just wanted to know if I had seen the first plane hit the WTC. My first thought was a small Cessna had hit it (that had happened before and it was a perfectly clear day). I had not but we gathered around one of the office TVs and saw the second one.  We could see the smoke from the Pentagon fire.  I could go into how it feels to be a New Yorker, how I want my skyline back and how scared I was for the people I knew in the buildings or how badly I feel for the people I know who did not make it out and almost as badly for those who did but in the interest of not turning this into a personal therapy session I will stick to the one question I do not think anyone is really addressing:  Are we safer?  My gut tells me after all the investigations and hearings we have had the answer remains ‘No.’

 

We have done a number of things in the US to achieve that goal but none seem to accomplish it.  The Washington Post had a great article on this subject, entitled “Are we safer today?” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702050.html?hpid=opinionsbox1) .  They argue that we are losing the public relations war and making more enemies than before:

 

“U.S. foreign policy has not stemmed the rising tide of extremism in the Muslim world. In July 2004, the 9/11 commission recommended putting foreign policy at the center of our counterterrorism efforts. Instead, we have lost ground.

 

Our report warned that it was imperative to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries. But inside Pakistan, al-Qaeda "has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability," according to the National Intelligence Estimate. The chief threat to Afghanistan's young democracy comes from across the Pakistani border, from the resurgent Taliban. Pakistan should take the lead in closing Taliban camps and rooting out al-Qaeda. But the United States must act if Pakistan will not.

 

We are also failing in the struggle of ideas. We have not been persuasive in enlisting the energy and sympathy of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims against the extremist threat. That is not because of who we are: Polling data consistently show strong support in the Muslim world for American values, including our political system and respect for human rights, liberty and equality. Rather, U.S. policy choices have undermined support.

 

No word is more poisonous to the reputation of the United States than Guantanamo. Fundamental justice requires a fair legal process before the U.S. government detains people for significant periods of time, and the president and Congress have not provided one. Guantanamo Bay should be closed now. The 9/11 commission recommended developing a "coalition approach" for the detention and treatment of terrorists — a policy that would be legally sustainable, internationally viable and far better for U.S. credibility.

 

Moreover, no question inflames public opinion in the Muslim world more than the Arab-Israeli dispute. To empower Muslim moderates, we must take away the extremists' most potent grievance: the charge that the United States does not care about the Palestinians. A vigorous diplomatic effort, with the visible, active support of the president, would bolster America's prestige and influence — and offer the best prospect for Israel's long-term security.”

 

Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seems to be in disarray.  Its creation was originally proposed by the then Vice President Al Gore in his reinventing government report, in which he also suggested more be done to make air travel safer but no one wanted to hear it then.  Anyone who travels regularly and though different airports will tell you the Transportation Security Administration (http://www.tsa.gov/) or TSA, implements its rules differently from one airport to the next.  Yes, they are there for deterrence but seriously, my lip balm is not a threat to anyone. 

 

DHS is more than TSA.  It took a number of agencies and put them under the same roof, the goal being to improve communications between the agencies but all it seems to have done is create more bureaucracy and red tape.  It also gave the current administration the idea that it had the right to ignore any parts of the Constitution they felt were cumbersome. (see the FISA post, I am just glad Alberto Gonzalez quit, we ARE safer since he did that.  But the creation of a new and very huge government agency has not increased communication.  A plane entered the Washington, DC airspace and the local government was not informed until AFTER it was found to be safe and diverted to another route (it was a governor’s plane that accidentally flew almost directly over the Capitol building).

 

The bottom line is we were attacked and rather than focus on the enemy we had we went after a bad guy who lacked any real means to hurt us.  By doing this we did more to help the people who wish us harm by giving them more reasons to want to so.  Additionally, we have stretched our military so thin we have left our ‘homeland’ even more vulnerable to another attack.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

9/11 let’s have some perspective here

First a word of advice for all the GOP hopefuls who will never read this and could not care less about my thoughts but here goes:

If you are in a debate with Rudy Guiliani, unless you are secretly working for him, DO NOT bring up 9/11!  You can be as right as rain on this one — and I personally believe our presence in Iraq has only created a fertile ground for terrorists to recruit and train, which does NOT mean I think the Iraq war caused 9/11 BUT it saved his career.  As a NYer, I lived under him and HATED him as a Mayor.  He was awful.  Police brutality was up by about 30 percent (and real shoot first and ask questions later kind of brutality, like the two people shot 20 times or more when they were ASKED TO GET THEIR ID).  He was a 'tough on crime' kind of guy, so his police broke down the wrong door several times a week?  You wanna safer city, or what?  Whatchu gonna do about it?  But mention 9/11 and he gets to hit one out of the ballpark so do not give him that chance.

As for my position on that day, it's a little complicated.  Being from NY and having lived in both cities that were attacked (ps.  all you 9/11 conspiracy theorists who think your data is backd up by the WAY the towers fell, how EXACTLY does the Pentagon or PA planes figure into your process?) I consider that say to be the worst of my life (to date, hope nothing worse happens).   When I needed comfort — and I was willing to give Dubya a lot of leeway but when he finally emerged, he looked like a deer in the headlights.  I desperately misses President Clinton and was genuinely comforted by Rudy. I never voted for him, wrote letters to his city hall, hated him as Mayor but that day he was the comforting figure I needed, and I am not alone in that.  But it has been six years.  Truth be told I cannot look at the Manhattan skyline without getting a little sick and get lost when I get out of the subway because I have always used those buildings as sort of my compass — get out, see them and know which was south was.  Downtown is different and nothing would make me happier than putting those buildings back EXACTLY as they were.  I digress because for a long time people said that I was too close to this.  My home city was hit so I was personally invested, and I remain so but New Yorkers (sorry DC, people still consider this a NYC traredy despite the Pentagon deaths and injuries and the PA flight) were not the only ones impacted.  I have met people all over the country who changed their lives — moved, bought guns, built shelters, whatever to be safe.  It made us feel — and no joke two days or so before the attacks I remember thinking It's a good thing we have two giant oceans protecting us from terrorists.  We lost that sense of secuity that day.  The problem is we were living in a post 9/11 world long before 9/11.

Tom Friedman (look it up, he has said this a million times) has said, "If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, hey will visit you."  That is what happened on that day.  I cannot believe that as bad as Bush Jr. is that he knew about tthat attack and did nothing rather he was so focused on Saddam Hussein (Paul O'Neill, Treasury Secretary number one under him said in his book their first Cabinet meeting started with a discussion of how to 'get rid of Saddam') thhreat the real threats were ignored.  Sandy Berger said that he told Condi Rice her biggest issue would be Al Qaeda but she did not get her marching orders from him.  Moreover, her expertise was in the Soviet Union, which does not exist anymore plus Dubya said he wanted 'to be the 'anti-Clinton' and ended our work in Middle East, a mistake most experts think led to the intense violence there in the first 18 months of his presidency.

Back on point, 9/11 made Dubya a President. On 9/10 he was unpopular with the country and had little political capitol on the Hill.  He was weak and vulnerable.  This attack made us all feel we were those things and made him a war time President and could not come at a better time politically (Any Card, former Chief of Staff there did say "You don't roll out new products in August" — he was talking about  the plans to sell the Iraq war but I think it is applicable.)  This is why so many liberals see a conspiracy theory.

So what do we do?  Hawks will say that the 'terroorists hate us because we are free.'  I have two responses to that:

1.  No they do not.  They hate us because we are the Microsoft of the planet, seriously — doesn't everyone hate Microsoft?  Moreover we have a tendency to see things only from our perspective and can be bullies.  Many parts of the world really belive we plan to colonie them and turn everyoene there Christian (happened in Somalia).  We see ourselves as this benevolent giant who just wants everyone to get along.  Others see us as a behemouth military power out to end their way of life.  (When Dubya dropped Christian pamplets on the troops in Iraq, it did us no favors).

 

2.  Even if they do hate our freedom, is the best way to beat to take it away ourselves?  They want to end our way of life so we're going to beat them to the punch?  WTF?  If we ar a beackon of freedom, democracy and rule of law then we have to stay that way.  We also need to stop treating people like dirt and close Gitmo.

3.  Last point:  Gitmo and torture and Abu Grahib.  So you watch Jack Bauer save America, one hour at a time, and honestly his life must suck because I spent at least several hours a day sleeping and I take it he does not.  TORTURE DOES NOT WORK IN GETTING GOOD INFO.  Recently (this was either in the New Yorker or Nation) high ranking military officials went to FOX and asked them to stop all the torture on the show because military personnel now ask: Jack Bauer did it, why can't I? (How reassuring is that our military is taking its cues from a fictional show, nice).  They were ignored because the head of entertainment at FOX didn't think they were right about torture and we all know highly paid network execs probably know best how to keep our civilians safe.  Bottom line though:  when we do something, we set a precedent.  Because I think this is such an important point I am going to painstakingly spell it out.  The US starts to torture people, any crazy dictator (and Saddam was far from the worst of the lot) can then say, "Hey, the US — that beacon of rule of law and freedom does it, why shouldn't I?  And while I am at it, maybe I can torture some Americans.  That sure would be fun."  WE DO NOT CONDONE ACTS AGAINST OTHERS THAT WE DO NOT WANT PERPETRATED AGAINST OUR PEOPLE AND FOR ALL THE CHRISTIANS OUT THERE I THINK YOU HAVE RULE ON THAT, IT GOES DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

Wow.  I feel better now.  I wonder if Jack Bauer wears a 'What would Jesus do?" bracelet.  I bet he does.

For the record, I do not blame Jesus for anything.  I think if he were around today he would be APPAULED by what people do in his name but that's just my opinion. 

Anyway, our world is not different, we are not as ignorant as we were.  We need a government that can deal with this reality.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend