The Day After . . .

Yesterday we remembered the heroes and the losses of 9/11 -- Casualties in United States on 9-11-01 - 2,996 (19 hijackers, 246 hostages on the planes, 2676 civilians, 55 military personnel.)It might be well to look at the rest of the picture -- the aftermath of the terrorist attack. Casualties in Iraq - 900,338 (4,414 US Troops, 30,000 Iraq troops, 318 other troops, the rest {865,606} were Civilians.) Casualties in Afghanistan - 19,629 (1,140 US Troops, 8,587 Afghan troops, 772 other troops, the rest {9,130} were Civilians   So many stories of heroism -- in the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, and on board the flight where the passengers revolted and crashed the plane rather than let the hijackers complete their deadly mission.But the dark side of the U. S. response needs to be acknowledged -- the rush to judgement, the decision to go to war with Iraq (those elusive weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be, if not a lie, at least willful self delusion.)We have become a country that uses torture( Abu Ghraib, waterboarding, 'extraordinary rendition' -- I feel queasy even typing the words.)We have become a country that arrests people on suspicion and holds them (Guantanamo Bay) without due process. We have resorted to petty jingoism -- remember "Freedom fries" and the accusation that, if anyone disagreed with the juggernaut of war, they didn't love freedom?Our leaders have not attempted to address the reasons behind the tragedy of 9/11 -- resorting to the  nonsensical -"We were attacked by people who hate freedom."We are less free than we were pre 9/11 -- the Patriot Act is one manifestation and, of course, if you've flown anywhere in the past ten years, you know what I'm talking about. Osama bin Laden didn't have the resources to wage war on the USA with military force. He just wanted to do damage -- it's said that he hoped to bankrupt the USA.  Looking at the costs of the two wars and the state of the economy today, one wonders who's ahead in the so-called war on terror.  It makes me think of martial art where one makes use of the opponent's strength, turning it against him to defeat him.How might it have been different?  This very excellent article by Chris Hedges  is well worth reading.