9-11 SCORECARD
By Ted Rall
Op/Ed
Tue Sep 10,10:01 PM ET
story.news.yahoo.com
In Some Ways, America is Better Off
NEW YORK--We've lost a great deal during the past year. For one thing, the September 11 attacks became a pretend president's pretext to eviscerate the First Amendment and other basic rights. Stifling even the slightest whimpers of dissent may end up killing the two-party political system, long crippled and ineffectual, once and for all. Although terrorists had previously massacred Americans on American soil (jihadis in `93, rednecks in `95), 9-11 wiped away our national sense of invulnerability. An illusion of security--the fantasy that bomb-throwing hatemongers would shoot up airports and blow up buildings elsewhere in the world but not within the United States--turned out to be an utterly imaginary privilege of citizenship.
Infinitely more important, we lost a lot of people: 2,819 at the World Trade Center, including passengers on the planes that struck them. 189 in Washington. 44 in Pennsylvania. 3,052 Americans in all, not including many more who will die from cancer, asbestosis and other ailments related to the attacks. Many more are disabled. Huge numbers have suffered emotional damage, losing parents, children, spouses, friends.
And we killed a lot of people, too. We killed so many that nobody's sure of the exact number: 84 accidentally-bombed Afghans who were either neutral or on our side. Four Canadian soldiers. 40 innocent people celebrating a wedding. Several U.S. servicemen died in helicopter mishaps. Estimates range from 3,500 to 10,000 total, and that's not including the Taliban troops we killed on purpose--even though they had nothing to do with 9-11.
The odds that one of those 6,500 to 13,000 people--or their children--would someday have cured cancer or written a great novel may be slim. But those deaths are nevertheless an unfathomable tragedy, and not just to their friends and families. If a universe is lost when a single person dies, who can justify what was done to us, or what we did to others?
The crucible of crisis, however, always creates opportunities and solutions as old assumptions are swept aside. We Americans have gained a lot since 9-11. Perhaps the perks weren't worth the price paid, but they're still worth noting:
The End of Ignorance. Before 9-11, American newspapers rarely covered international affairs at all, much less in the remote, obscure backwaters of former Soviet Central Asia. While most people may still not know the exchange rate between Uzbek som and Kyrgyz sum, people now better understand basic Afghan geography and history, tribal politics and rising Islamic fundamentalism--issues that will continue to affect the U.S. for the foreseeable future. While much coverage of international affairs and the "war on terrorism" remains sketchy or misleading, we're beginning to pay serious attention to the world beyond our borders and to the possibility that we're not always the good guys. Since the U.S. is a major player overseas, this is obviously a good thing.
The End of Naiveté. Believing that there was no meaningful difference between the Democratic and Republican parties, I voted for the Green Party's Ralph Nader ( news - web sites) in 2000. Before 9-11, that decision seemed sound. Now, however, the ideological extremism of the GOP has been cast into sharp relief for all to see--as LBJ historian Robert A. Caro writes, power doesn't corrupt, power reveals. Bush exploited his post-9-11 90 percent approval rating by bullying Congress into passing a litany of GOP wish-list agenda items with no link to fighting terrorism. Would Al Gore ( news - web sites) have bombed Afghanistan ( news - web sites)? Perhaps--Clinton did. Gore, however, would not have used 9-11 to justify fast-track signing authority for free-trade agreements, tax cuts for the wealthy (or for increases), jailing American citizens without charging them with a crime or invading Iraq without provocation. The two parties are still painfully close in ideology and temperament--but Bush after 9-11 provides ample warning that a right-wing demagogue can travel in a buffoon's clothing.
The End of Moderation. The Bush Administration's hard right turn after 9-11 forces all Americans to take firm stands on various issues. If you say that you support George W. Bush, many people will assume that you despise the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, working people and the middle class. "Isn't there some middle ground?" a friend asked me the other day. "Can't I be a moderate Republican?" Not any more. Neo-McCarthyism is at war with democracy, and it's time for every American to stand up and be counted.
(Ted Rall's latest book, a graphic travelogue about his recent coverage of the Afghan war titled "To Afghanistan and Back," is now in its second edition. Ordering and review-copy information are available at nbmpub.com.) |
