Some Thoughts about September 11
by Lynn of Idaho, U.S.A.

As we prepare to respond to the terrorist attack of September 11, it's important that we face what really happened and why instead of succumbing to self-righteous jingoism based on comfortable fictions. Our pervasive, ongoing refusal to undertake the painful work of self-examination and self-correction helped to create this tragedy. Let's not create another one.

Nothing that I am going to say in these paragraphs is intended to absolve the perpetrators of this heinous act of any measure of responsibility for what they have done, or to justify their acts in any way. I believe they must be held accountable for their actions, and I support the President in his efforts to accomplish this, as long as they are sincere and thoughtful. My point is that everyone who had any part in the attacks must be held accountable, each in a way that is appropriate to the part he or she played. And that includes many, many more than just Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein and their followers and sympathizers ­ it includes us all.

I've been doing some reading about U.S. participation in the training and arming of Muslim terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the early 1980's. The CIA supported recruitment and training of terrorists with money, advisers and weapons (including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles) because we wanted them to attack the Soviet Union. As former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Bzenzinski said, "What was more important in the world view of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" So we, ourselves, participated in creating terrorists...we were happy to do it as long as they were attacking someone else.

We've called a lot of people on the carpet for the murders of September 11, naming them evil. I have done it myself, and am doing it still. I believe that the people at the center of the terrorist web of deceit and hatred are indeed evil. But when we go to war with evil, it isn't good enough to think of evil as something 'out there', or as the brainchild of one person in one time and place. It is this focus only on the evil that is external, glaring and dramatic that has brought us to the terrible situation we face today. We've been here before, looking at one man or group of men, pointing our fingers and shaking our fists in rage, demanding that the evil be exorcised. Do we plan to kill Osama Bin Laden and then dust off our hands and say 'problem solved'? Was the problem solved when Emperor Caligula was knifed outside the theatre or Hitler buried in his bunker? Evil is not so easy to eradicate.

The fact is, terrorists might not have had the capacity to reach into our country and wound us to the heart if we as a society, through the convoluted machinations of our own government, had not financed and assisted them in creating their organizations of destruction. But I do not intend to point the finger of self-righteous blame at the CIA or the President for, in part, creating this monster...that's just another way of finding the evil out there. The way I see it, we all are responsible. Out of fear, laziness and passivity, we empowered these organizations to "do whatever you guys think is necessary; just don't bother us with the details". We were afraid of the Soviets and what they might do to us, yet we refused to put forth the time and effort required to think deeply about how we could safeguard ourselves and what the ramifications of our decisions might be. Instead, we passed the burden of these choices off on others and paid no attention to what they were doing. If we heard anything about it, we dismissed it. "That's what we pay them for," we said. "It's not our business to figure out what needs to be done. They know best." Or we said, "Well, it's not perhaps strictly moral what they're doing, but after all, the Russians are worse. We have to protect ourselves." And protect ourselves we did, at a horrifying cost that we only now are beginning to realize.

At the moment, I am in support of the President's call for funds and troops to find and eliminate terrorist leaders and organizations. However, the way in which we are undertaking this mission alarms me. Once again, we aren't bothering to consider our actions; we're just responding to the trumpet calls like a herd of patriotic cattle. Suddenly we've all become John Wayne on a movie set ­ the Good Guys chasing after horse thieves in black hats. After all, why think? The issues are so black-and-white. Osama Bin Laden is responsible (or is he?); he's evil; we're the righteous. Let us wreak vengeance upon him swiftly and may the devil take the consequences.

Human beings are addicted to expediency. We want to find the easier, softer way. We prefer not to educate ourselves about complicated issues such as national security or the world economy, nor to put forth the effort necessary to understand and implement complex or longer-term solutions to our problems. This would require that we examine the moral or ethical foundations of our own decisions and actions. That's difficult; it's humbling and it necessitates that we be willing to put our own flaws on the table for everyone to see. It requires that we give up the comfort of being self-righteous victims and take some responsibility for what happens to us. But when we deny our own fault and turn away from responsibility, we are in our own way perpetuating evil.

To pretend that this terrorist act came completely out of the blue, that we had no part in creating it and, in fact, can't imagine why the terrorists suddenly decided to pick on us is a lie. We know a great deal about the origin and evolution of terrorism in the name of Islam, and much more about the motives of these individuals than we are willing to admit. After all, we, ourselves, are guilty of the same megalomaniacal thinking (the whole world should be just like us; we have a right to take whatever resources we need or want; our systems of government and economics are better than everyone else's and they need to get in line with our program; we are justified in doing whatever we feel we have to in order to protect ourselves no matter how manipulative, deceitful or disrespectful it may be, etc.). And every act of hatred against an innocent Muslim neighbor comes from the same evil as that which drives Muslim terrorists to kill all those (including, by the way, other Muslims) that are not like themselves.

Lies and hatred are the substance of evil, and one evil act does not justify another. Our evil may be on a smaller scale (if, indeed, there is a measuring stick for evil), but it's made of the same stuff. Let us rise to the challenge and learn from our past experience, lest the next price we are called upon to pay is higher still. Let us be willing to do the work of self-criticism, to cast the beam out of our own eye so that we then can see clearly to remove the mote from our brother's eye. Let us ask the tough questions of our leaders, our government and ourselves and not shirk from hearing painful answers. What part did they play? What are their real objectives­ ALL of them, not just the popular ones? What part did I play? Where is the true locus of evil here? If we are willing to accept responsibility for our own evil, we will be able to confront the evil of others to heal rather than scapegoat them. The actions we take to contain the evil that will not be healed are more likely to be truly appropriate actions with less negative long-term consequences. So let us resolve to address the evil within ourselves as well as the evil outside. Let us choose truth over comfort, as Jesus Christ did, for that is the only way evil ever will be contained.

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