9-11 And America's Self-Destruction

Last night we watched a Dateline special on 9-11. It brought back much of the horror of that day of infamy especially being here in New York City and not all that far from the World Trade Center site. The program, however, also made me think of the additional horrors set in motion that day: the suspension of many American values, the needless war in Iraq, torture as an approved policy with authorization tracing directly to the White House, and domestic surveillance of Americans on a level that places the USA on a level with China and Russia according to some reports. 9-11 destroyed lives, destroyed American confidence and ushered in the worse aspects of the years of misrule under Chimperator Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney. It likewise set the stage or the nation's current budget foes and the palpable hatred of the "other" so strong in the GOP and the Tea Party. Yes, some haters were already plying their hatred - the Christian Right and white supremacy groups are prime examples - but 9-11 made it more respectable to dislike and rail against those who were different. Kathleen Parker has a column that looks at this phenomenon in the Washington Post. Here are some highlights:

The legacy of 9/11 can’t be fully measured even now, but perhaps the most damaging aspect can be found in our national discourse. Taking the long view, it is possible to see the roots of today’s political dysfunction — the hate, fear, anger and resentment — firmly planted in the soil at Ground Zero.

Did Osama bin Laden envision such a thing when he plotted the attacks? Probably not. He might have imagined that we would retaliate, and this would cost us lives and treasure. But he couldn’t have known that we eventually would lose our common sense of who we are. This has been the big surprise of 9/11 — an ongoing, self-perpetuating act of American self-destruction.

Something was unleashed 10 years ago that bears our scrutiny. It wasn’t only evil, though the attacks were certainly that. The event was so cataclysmic and horrifying that it caused a sort of emotional breakdown in the American constitution. Simply put, it damaged our collective soul and seems to have released a free-ranging hysteria that has contaminated our interactions ever since.

Putting it bluntly, Sept. 11 caused us to go temporarily insane. Being for or against the war, first in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, divided us as wars do, but this time was different. Friendships ended, marriages suffered, people crossed the street to avoid those with whom they disagreed. Ten years later, we are still at war. Tack on the global financial crisis, stagnant unemployment, the further dissolution of trust in our institutions, and we have all the ingredients for moral panic.

President Obama understands that the nation has a psychological problem, but no president in his right mind can afford to speak publicly of such things.

Obama tried to unite the nation with his purple rhetoric, but he missed his window when it came time to act. The jobs speech he gave Thursday night was 21 / 2 years late, and the health-care reform bill he pushed through against a tide of opposition was a calamity of bad timing.

These missteps, nonetheless, don’t justify the “You lie!” hysteria of his opposition. Emotional excess and a lack of self-control in the public sphere are but two of the manifestations of our unraveling.

As we reflect on the events of 10 years ago, it would be nice if all sides could resolve to invite America’s better angels back to the huddle. Another terror attack would put things in perspective, all right, but our survival ultimately depends on our willingness to marshal reason and restraint against the emotional terrorism that surely will bring us down. At the risk of sounding bossy: America, heal thyself. Please.

At the risk of offending some, when the last decade as looked at from the foregoing perspective, Bin Laden won big time, even though not in the way he had planned or hoped. The irony, of course, is that today, it is those who wear their patriotism (and often religion too) are most responsible for the nation's self-destruction.