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9/11: What Changed Is What We've Done to Ourselves

There's a good piece by Jonathan Raban in the Independent on what really changed after 9/11.

"Since September 11..." we say, as if the attacks were what changed everything. The month is right but the day wrong, because the real metamorphosis has arisen not so much from what Mohamed Atta and his co-conspirators did to us on September 11 as what we've subsequently done to ourselves - and continue to do, today, tomorrow, and in the foreseeable future (incredibly foreshortened though that has become). On September 12, still in shock at the extraordinary injury inflicted on the US, we woke to essentially the same world we'd been living in before the phones began to ring. The death toll - then estimated at 10,000-plus - was horrifying, on the scale of a major earthquake or tsunami, but the globe continued to revolve on its accustomed axis, as it does after even the most devastating seismic killers. ...

Not 9/11, he argues, but 9/18 is "the real date to circle."

That day, Congress rushed through its Authorisation For Use of Military Force (AUMF), entitling the President, as the nation's commander in chief, to "use all necessary and appropriate force" against "those nations, organisations, or persons" that "he determines" were responsible for the September 11 atrocities, "...in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organisations, or persons." It's the "such" that's the key, the inclusion of nations, organisations, or persons "of that sort", which nicely covers, for instance, the invasion of Iraq, the arrest and detention of most of the prisoners now languishing in Guantanamo Bay, possible future military action against Iran, or Syria, or both, and heaven knows what else, since "such" is a term of potentially limitless capacity to make hitherto unguessed-at likenesses and connections.

The sloppily-worded AUMF endowed the administration with unique and wide-ranging powers. It has become the licence for the executive branch to wave at Congress and the judiciary whenever its actions are questioned or censured. On September 18 2001, the delicate balance between the three branches of government, as laid out in the American constitution, was thrown severely out of whack; since that day, one branch, the presidency, has enjoyed an unprecedented primacy over the others, and we've been living with the consequences of AUMF ever since.

Worth reading in full. Also worth a look is this interview with Raban about his book, My Holy War.

Comments

What has changed since 9/11? Likely, we are far less safe and have far fewer friends in the world. The following provides another way of looking at the mess we have gotten ourselves into.

9/11 – An Attack Against Humanity
I read a very interesting note on meetings between Iran, China, and Russia at misneach blog a couple months ago. I wonder why I haven’t heard much about this anywhere else? The strategic value of developing closer relationships between theses countries is clear to see, for anyone who is paying attention.

China's rapid growth is fueling an insatiable appetite for Oil.

Russia is looking for any market to sell its products and services. Is Iran hiring? Have they posted any want ads for a nuclear scientist?

Both China and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council. Any UN sponsored sanctions against Iran will likely face a veto from one or both of these nations, based upon their own strategic reasons. What is America to do? The military option is unrealistic.

Today, America is over extended militarily and out of touch diplomatically. I am most saddened by the reckless disregard for diplomacy, civility, and sportsmanship the Bush Administration has displayed since 9/11/01. They have managed to pull defeat and division from the jaws of victory and cohesion in the real "war on terror." Just look at Afghanistan if you doubt this assertion.

The world mourned with us and for themselves after Sept. 11th. The attack on the World Trade Center was not only an attack upon America. It was an attack against all humanity. Citizens of far too many other countries died on 9/11 in NYC.

The other countries and thousands of families who lost loved ones at "ground zero" are fighting their own personal wars on terror everyday. Their lives have been changed forever. How dare we allow our "public servants" to exploit their sufferings to launch a preemptive war on Iraq, while not bringing Bin Laden to justice?

QuestionItNow - Still In Iraq

Posted by: REB 84 on 09/08/06 at 10:31 PM

This is beautifully said and accurate. I agree completely.

Posted by: paul miller on 09/09/06 at 10:04 AM

My heart goes out to the families of the nearly 3000 who lost their loved ones in the tragedy on 9/11! They have suffered much, but--I'm sure they have discovered in the last five years--life must go on. We grieve, we suffer inertia, we try to put our lives back together without those we love, then the living has to go on.
However, this country--and especially our present government--behaves as if we are the only country who has suffered such a terrible loss. Particularly reprehensible is the use of this tragedy by the Bush administration for political benefit, i.e. the constant replaying of those events to keep the populace frightened and willing to give away our Constitutional rights so the Commander-in-Chief can "keep Americans safe"! I think it's shameful that Bush is USING this tragedy over and over in order to keep his Party in power and, most importantly, to cover his a-- for all he has done in the last five years!
What I would like to see on this anniversary is SOME RECOGNITION by the American people of all the thousands of needless deaths and life-changing injuries experienced by the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, which have been the result of the Bush administration's reckless, dishonest, and criminal policies and practices! We lost nearly 3000; this country has precipitated the deaths of 2600 of our own finest young soldiers, severely injured 20,000 of them, killed thousands in Afghanistan, and--some estimate--close to 100,000 men women, and children in Iraq, as well as 1500 more needless deaths in Lebanon while we supplied and supported Israel's attack on Hizbollah! Who are the real terrorists?
It's high time we, as Americans, wake up and realize that our own government is responsible for much of the terror and misery we and the rest of the world (particularly the Middle East) are experiencing. Sure, those whom we deem to be "terrorists" have done terrible, unspeakable things, but this country has, too! Bin Laden has said over and over that he is warring against our POLICIES, not our freedoms! When are Americans going to wake up and realize that OUR hands are not clean, either? Perhaps that's why they hate us so! I simply wish that, on this anniversary, Americans would remember that the thousands we lost on that day--and all the hearbreak that has caused everyone--has been repeated many times over in the countries which the United States has attacked since that day five years ago,--September 11th. All those people had families, too, and lost their children, mothers, fathers, homes, livlihoods, security---all because of the dangerously misguided and imperialistic ambitions of the neoconservatives who have taken control of our own government!
I think that, especially on this anniversary of 9/11, we need to remember that old Bible verse: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
By: druidlady42 on September 09, 2006 at 08:15pm

Posted by: Linda Graves on 09/09/06 at 8:05 PM