Editorial - September 2002

Understanding 9-11

September 11, 2002 - What more can be said. We’ve heard a lot about American resilience after  the Sept. 11 attacks. We have heard repeated tributes to those firefighters who lost their lives in New York. We’ve felt the patriotic fervor. We’ve proudly placed the American flag in every appropriate spot we can find and some not so appropriate. It’s just one of those occasions when we can’t do enough to commemorate our sorrow, our anger, our sympathy and our love for our country after the brazen attack on the World Trade Center that killed some 3,000 Americans one year ago today.

In a classroom 50 years from now, a college professor may put it all in perspective, something very difficult for us to do at this first anniversary of 9-11. But we should try and reflect not only on what has happened to our nation, but why it happened and what should be the smartest response.

We know today that our nation is no longer (if it ever was) secure from an attack by terrorists. That is the most unsettling truth arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks.  We know there are organized networks of Islamic radicals who have declared a holy war on the United States. They are trained, well-funded and willing to take extreme measures to accomplish their mission, even if their own lives are sacrificed.

Since Sept. 11 we have taken very important steps to guard against any such attacks in the future. Perhaps the most important safeguards are those in taken in the air travel industry — more thorough searches upon boarding, and protective measures that prevent passengers from entering the cockpit of an aircraft. On the federal level, and even on the state and local level to some extent, new security measures enhance our nation’s readiness to deal with whatever weapons a terrorists may launch, whether it’s a deadly biological organism inserted in our mail or poisons in our water supply. It’s still too early to tell but it would seem we are doing the right things to defend ourselves from future terrorists.

But to truly understand our enemies and to eventually overcome them, we must understand what motivates their actions. Why do they hate us?

Reams have been written. Reams must be read.

 A point that keeps coming home is that a significant population of the Arab world sees evil and corruption in the American way of life, even to the extent that children are indoctrinated with these beliefs. Such views permeate some Arab nations while governments, supposedly friendly to the United States, do nothing to stop them.

Much has also been written about our relationship with other Arab nations, questioning  our solidarity with oppressive monarchs that do little to allow their people the freedoms we take for granted. This has been going on for years. Our obsession with Arab oil is frequently offered as the logic in such relationships.

Another point repeatedly made by Arab leaders is that our government fails to appreciate the plight of the Palestinians, constantly siding with Israel regardless of the issue at hand. We wring our hands at this conflict, which has been going on for decades despite intensive peace efforts on our part. But we have to understand why Palestinians are driven to kill themselves and innocent civilians in suicide attacks that are strangely praised and rewarded by some sectors of their population

   Leadership, education and diplomacy are sorely needed to change this behavior.

   So, as we wave our flags, as we hold memorials and pray for the victims of 9-11, let us vow to learn more about what brought it all about. The Bush administration is acting in an aggressive defense of our nation when it says “get them before they get us.”  But that mindset doesn’t begin to get to the root of the problem.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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