4 Years After 9/11: Local and Global Issues

author : Therese Saliba topic : civil liberties | Hurricane Katrina | Iraq occupation | New Orleans | September 11, 2001 | torture

Adapted from a talk in September by Prof. Therese Saliba at the Olympia Timberland Library

Reflecting back on the last 4 years since the tragic events of 9/11, I am reminded of an essay written by Bill Moyers entitled, "Which America will we be now?" In it, he described 9/11 as what educators call "a teachable moment," and argued that "what's at stake is democracy. Democracy wasn't canceled on Sept. 11," he writes," but democracy won't survive if citizens turn into lemmings."

So as we recall the tragedy, the horror, the vulnerability, loss and fear that many experienced on 9/11, I think it is also important to ask, "What America have we become in the past 4 years?" Since 9/11, we have been confronted with four years of Unnatural Disasters -- including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and so-called "Natural Disasters" -- the Tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina and the devastating aftermath in New Orleans.

But the image of a United America so popular after 9/11 rapidly breaks down with the images of Katrina's aftermath--exposing the US as a country deeply marked by the divisions of race and class. And while sayings like "United We Stand" affirm the need for people to come together in crisis to ensure the survival of our communities and nation, we also know that this discourse is used to silence dissent and to stunt critical civic engagement in our nation's democratic processes. In 2004 we had a presidential election that seemed to highlight the deep political divisions within our country (marked by blue states and red states), and closer to home within Washington state, a divisive governor's race.

In Washington state, we also have an economy that is heavily dependent on the military, with military industries such as Boeing, which aside from 747s, produces "smart" bombs, F-15 fighters, and Apache helicopters, and in 2004 alone had $17 billion in military contracts. Here in the Northwest, we also harbor extensive weapons of mass destruction, from Trident subs based at Bangor to the biological and chemical weapons stored at Umatilla. Our Northwest landscape supports numerous military bases from Bremerton to nearby Fort Lewis, which borders on our relatively liberal city of Olympia and its environs. In the past four years, many of us have found it increasingly difficult to speak to each other across the divides -- marked by political, economic, and ideological interests, as well as our often differing visions for our nation's future, its relationship to the democratic process and to the global community. But we have also seen moments where these divisions are breaking down.

On August 31, the Olympia headlines and news briefs suggest some of the links between the chaos in Katrina's wake, rising rates of US poverty, and the war in Iraq. "We've lost our city" -- reads a tragic statement by the former mayor of New Orleans. "Poverty up in nation," reads an adjacent headline, noting that 1.1 million more Americans lived in poverty in 2004. In fact, an estimated 13 million American children went hungry at some point last year. Then the next headline: "US drops bombs," which explains that 56 Iraqis were killed in US airstrikes. As the nation witnessed the effects of poverty and negligent policies on those who were unable to escape the horrors of Katrina, we learn of four years of rising poverty rates in this country, while the US military budget pays over 4 billion dollars per month to fight a growing insurgency in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor (8/29/05) shows that "Despite the relatively small number of American armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war effort is rapidly shaping up to be the third-most expensive war in United States history." The author projects a cost of nearly $1.4 trillion dollars if we are to, as Bush says, "stay the course" in Iraq and remain for five more years. "That's nearly $4,745 per capita."

These financial costs, however, are overshadowed by the cost in human lives both U.S. and Iraqi "The cost is too high" state the Military Families for Peace, who hold up pictures of their dead sons and daughters, as US military deaths (in Iraq and Afghanistan) now exceed 2000, many from Fort Lewis. And recent estimates of civilian deaths in Iraq range from 25,000 (these are reported deaths) to 128,000 by the Lancet (John Hopkins, Columbia University study) -- the majority of deaths were women and children killed as a result of US airstrikes.

After a week of bad publicity coming out of New Orleans, the government, military, and police began to crack down on journalists, in an attempt to mimic their successful media manipulation in the Middle East, suppressing unembedded journalists, banning pictures of the dead, etc . Yet not all images can be controlled. In the spring of 2004, I was in Cairo, Egypt with students when the Abu-Ghraib torture scandal broke. Some of my students were working with an NGO for prisoners' rights in Egypt that had launched a nation-wide anti-torture campaign. The blatant images of torture, abuse, and even rape (images which have been shown to US congress but have yet to be published) served as a stark lesson that we must turn the mirror around and look at our society, our own violences. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo. Katrina is another such reminder.

Are these images of the nation we have become? Or are they rather images that expose those hidden aspects of our society -- the dehumanization of war, the corrosive effects of institutionalized racism, the neglect of poverty, and the abuses of an exclusionary nationalism that says some lives are more valued, others more expendable. Indeed these images confound the vision of America we have sought to project. And they capture, in a tragic way, what Nobel prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka has called "the quest for dignity in a dehumanized world." They capture both the poignant denial and recognition of our shared humanity.

We see this quest for dignity in the actions of people like Cindy Sheehan, and military families for peace, who have put a human face on the anti-war movement. Many in their grief have met with Iraqi families who have lost loved ones to the US war. We see this in the community organizing that took place in New Orleans, where community members commandeered buses, boats, whatever they could find to rescue neighbors and strangers. And we see this when people realize that their survival depends on being part of community, and affirming the human rights of all peoples.

So "What America will we be now?" In our concern with civil rights and democracy at home, it is important to remember that shortly after the London bombings, on July 22, the House voted to renew the provisions of the Patriot Act by a margin of 257-171. This vote makes 14 of the 16 provisions permanent. One of the more controversial provisions that allows federal law enforcements to obtain library and bookstore records was also renewed. A recent film promoted by the ACLU called "Beyond the Patriot Act" shows how these sweeping and misguided laws are threatening American democracy.

And as much of our attention is turned toward the Supreme Court appointments it is important to look at what is at stake. Since 9/11 a series of lower court rulings, with some backing of the Supreme Court, have tried to preserve constitutional rights of the accused, as well as the systems of checks of balances so central to our democracy. Let's look at a recent ruling in the Jose Padilla case. A federal appeals court opinion written by Michael Luttig, on Bush's short list of supreme court nominees, ruled in a victory for the Bush administration, that the government can continue to hold indefinitely without charges or trial an American citizen suspected of plotting terrorist activities. This expands the president's authority and reverses a ruling by a federal judge in South Carolina in February that the government cannot hold Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant". This reversal, on September 9, was praised by Attorney General Gonzales, and condemned by the ACLU Legal Director Shapiro, who said "So long as the civilian courts are open and functioning, American citizens arrested in the United States are entitled to due process protections provided by a traditional criminal trial."

Another case of concern is the involvement of John Roberts in the appeals of Ahmed Hamdan. In June '04 the Supreme Court had ruled that Guantanamo detainees have the right to contest their detention before a "neutral tribunal," but the Bush administration continued to use military tribunals, under his own chain of command, with no legal representation and no review by the Judiciary. In November 2004 a lower federal court ordered a stop to these tribunals. Bush appealed the ruling to a higher appellate court which included Judge John Roberts. According to The Nation, while he was hearing the Hamdan appeal this past Spring, he was engaged in secret job interviews for the supreme court, a violation of federal law on the disqualification of judges according to legal ethicists. Significantly, Roberts' ruling upheld the Administration's challenge to the Geneva Conventions, just four days before his nomination to theSupreme Court was announced. So when we consider "Which America we will be now" it is critical to look at the projected composition of the Supreme Court.

Here in Olympia, I am glad to be part of a community that recognizes its connections to the international community. The position of the Olympia City Council to declare Olympia a nuclear-free zone 60 years after the world witnessed the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by WMDs is just one example. The city also passed resolution M-1531 to protect civil rights and liberties as essential to the "well-being of a democratic society." Here in our own community, and in the greater NW, we have witnessed the erosion of these rights, especially for our Arab and Muslim residents. The case of Army Captain James Yusuf Yee, who resides in Olympia with his family, and was stationed as a Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay is just one example. Yee was wrongfully accused of spying, spent 76 days in solitary confinement, and threatened with the death penalty. His memoir, "For God and Country" will be out October 3 and he will be speaking about his experiences on October 17 at St. Martin's University's Washington Center.

Which America have we become in the past four years? Our democratic liberties have certainly been eroded. We have become conditioned to extraordinary violence and abuses. But perhaps a new spirit of opposition is being awakened. Let us hope that this is so, as we carry on in the quest for justice and freedom that America claims to stand for.