This past week the media has flooded us with the memories of the 9/11 attack on the United States. People still reflect upon the pain and suffering experienced that day, 25 years ago.
The reoccurring theme was “we shall never forget.” I sat with a group of people, each sharing their memories: what they were doing, how they felt, and their connections with people who were directly affected by the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in the plane forced to crash in Shanksville.
What has been missing, perhaps out of respect and acknowledgement of people’s feelings, are the words of Harvard Law School professor Duncan Kennedy spoken on the 10th anniversary of 9/11: “It is important that Americans do not again lose sight of their impact on the broader world and perpetuate the ‘naive ignorance’ that once left many asking, ‘Why do they hate us?’”
According to Peter Ford, writing for the Christian Science Monitor in 2001, “A mood of resentment toward America and its behavior around the world has become so commonplace in their countries that it was bound to breed hostility, and even hatred.” He continues, “The injustice done to the Palestinians, the cruelty of continued sanctions against Iraq, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia, the repressive and corrupt nature of US-backed Gulf governments — win a good deal of popular sympathy.”
Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister of Lebanon, observes, “It hurts me a lot. But for hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims, it drives them crazy. They feel humiliated… America means F-16, M-16, Apache helicopters, the tools Israelis use to kill us and destroy our homes.”
It seems apparent that at least two main factors may have led to the 9/11 attack. One factor is the U.S. reliance on a capitalistic economic system that flows financial wealth to the wealthy and creates a widening divide between the extremely rich and the rest of the world’s population. The second is an all-powerful military presence throughout the world.
According to the Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition (OBRACC), made up of “transpartisan military base experts across the political spectrum,” there are an estimated 750 to 800 American military bases in 80 foreign countries and colonies/territories. At least 29 times, these U.S. bases have been used to launch wars of choice or military interventions in 15 countries in the greater Middle East alone since 1980.
The economics of this dominating military force include an estimate of $65 billion per year to build and maintain overseas bases, $94 billion per year in total spending on bases and personnel abroad and $82 billion to $100 billion in just military construction spending abroad since 2000. These expenses of the U.S. government represent profits for the wealthy and a deficit for the tax-paying U.S. citizen, while converting into overseas enemies those who suffer from U.S. military and economic dominance.
During this 25th anniversary of 9/11, Congress and the Executive Office can give meaning to the memory of the suffering and death that haunts survivors by reforming U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. has tried retaliation. It failed. It’s time for empathy. “There is only one way for America to be a friend of Islam,” Nabil Ahmed, a business student at Al Khair University, told the Christian Science Monitor. “And that is if they consider our lives to be as precious as their own.”
OBRACC advocates closing some U.S. bases and boosting U.S. diplomatic presence globally by rebuilding alliances through economic and cultural engagement centered on global relations, with military force as a last resort. 9/11 reminds us that there is more than enough pain in the world. The U.S. may become a benevolent leader among nations by modeling a diplomacy that includes recognizing every human being as precious and building relationships accordingly. That would be action never to be forgotten.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing.