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In a 2004 photo, Iraqi Mahdi Nawaf shows photographs of dead family members he said were were killed when a U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party, killing more than 40 people. |
by Patrick O'Neill
In a "Point of View" article published ten years ago (Sept. 12, 2001), I wrote: "I urge President Bush and our nation's leaders to forget retaliation and instead begin a process that can lead this world to eliminate violence as a means of conflict resolution. Think of the message that would send to the world - the most powerful nation forgoes retaliation and violence and instead begins a heartfelt search for justice and peace."
Sadly and tragically, our leaders have learned nothing from the 9/11 attacks. Rather than making these last 10 years a period of deep introspection about why the attacks occurred, we have instead embraced a decade of vengeance and multiple wars.
Despite the deaths of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the United States has embarked on a stated policy of war-without-end. The Washington Post, quoting from a Pentagon document, reported this week that the United States is in a "period of persistent conflict." The article stated that peace "has become something of a dirty word in Washington foreign-policy circles."
Ironically, it was 50 years ago that President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered the farewell address in which he coined the term "military-industrial complex," warning Americans of the dangers to our democracy from the unchecked power of a corporate-Pentagon war machine.
The military-industrial complex has never been more powerful than it is today. High-level Defense Department staffers move smoothly and laterally from government positions to the corporate offices of the defense industry, always marching to the same beat of endless war drums. Trillions of dollars are at stake, and those making the money - and the decisions - have no vested interest in peace and nonviolence.
On this anniversary, we are re-hearing the sad and tragic stories of those who died on that horrific day 10 years ago, and we are hearing the stories of the brave first responders, but the media make scant mention of the tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who have perished under the blows of a decade of U.S. military dominance. The unrecorded deaths of non-Americans are merely collateral damage.
Little mention is made about how deeply and irreparably damaged our democracy is in the aftermath of our misguided and reckless response to 9/11. This past decade has brought us a whole new vocabulary of shame and overreaction: the Patriot Act, extraordinary rendition, waterboarding, Homeland Security, drones, IEDs and Abu Ghraib, to name a few. "Detainees" - some flown in jets based in Smithfield at Aero Contractors - have been kidnapped, tortured and deprived of their basic human rights. Surveillance of citizens is now the norm, the CIA has a separate and secret budget and soldiers of fortune, such as those from the formerly North Carolina-based Xe Corporation (the former Blackwater USA) are operating with little accountability in multiple war zones.
American leaders could have used the 9/11 tragedy as an opportunity to explore new ways of peace, reconciliation and nonviolent conflict resolution. Instead, we have wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in an endless war on terror that will never bring us peace. In the last 10 years, we have been diminished as a nation and as a people. Americans must rise up out of the ashes of 9/11, reclaim our democracy and refuse complicity in this mad display of war and violence.
In my op-ed of 10 years ago, I quoted the words the Sacred Heart Cathedral rector, Msgr. Girard Sherba, who told shell-shocked Catholics who had just watched the World Trade Center towers fall: "Our hearts have been torn apart by the senseless killing of innocent lives." Rather than seek retaliation, Sherba told us to "be people of forgiveness; be people of compassion; be people of love ... words we don't want to hear right now."
Sherba's words still ring true. Now is the time for us to pray and work for peace.
Patrick O'Neill is co-founder of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, a pacifist, intentional Christian community that provides hospitality to men, women and children in crisis.
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