Arrogance, ignorance, and cowardice: Lessons from 9/11

Given the disastrous decisions made by U.S. officials in the seven long years since September 11, 2001, it would be easy tonight simply to catalog those many mistakes and condemn the bipartisan depravity of the Republican and Democratic politicians who -- starting almost immediately after the towers fell -- manipulated people's anger and fear to build support for illegal and immoral wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq.

      It need not be said, but I will say it: The acts of terrorism that killed civilians in New York and Washington were reprehensible and indefensible; to try to defend them would be to abandon one's humanity. … But this act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime.

Let us not forget that a military response will kill people, and if the pattern of past U.S. actions holds, it will kill innocents. Innocent people, just like the ones in the towers in New York and the ones on the airplanes that were hijacked. To borrow from President Bush, "mother and fathers, friends and neighbors" will surely die in a massive response.

[I]f we are to be decent people, we all must demand of our government -- the government that a great man of peace, Martin Luther King Jr., once described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -- that the insanity stop here.

With help from friends in my political circle, I wrote those words late in the day on September 11, 2001. The full essay was posted on the web the next day and appeared in the Houston Chronicle on September 14, prompting a flood of angry responses from people who thought that the piece was outrageous and that I was a traitor. Yet analyses like this, which were so controversial at the time, seem rather unremarkable today. In a recent report, the establishment think tank Rand Corp. concluded that the United States made a fundamental error in portraying the response to 9/11 as a "war on terrorism" and that "the U.S. strategy was not successful in undermining al Qa'ida's capabilities." [Seth G. Jones, Martin C. Libick, "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida," 2008.] Looking back at the statements and writings of the anti-war activists who spoke up right away, I think it's fair to say that in general we were honest in our assessments of history and accurate in our projections of what was to come. We shouldn't feel too cocky about that, however; predicting that an imperial power will act like an imperial power is no great accomplishment.

So, tonight I want to do more than review the crimes that the Bush administration committed with the cooperation of Democrats, and to go beyond self-congratulation. That would be the easy path, but the easy path is rarely the most useful. Instead, let's focus on ourselves and our fellow citizens. Let's try to be honest about who we are and who we have been, in the hopes we can learn lessons that will be valuable in the future.

I'll start with the rule of thirds, assuming it can be helpful to divide any human population roughly into thirds on any particular question. Based on the past seven years, how would we describe 21st century Americans in political terms? I would suggest that 9/11 showed us that we the people of the United States are arrogant, ignorant, and cowardly. About a third of us are arrogant and proud of the United States' aggressive posture in the world. Another third of us are ignorant and hide behind the excuse that we don't, or can't, know what's really happening. And the final third -- the group in which I would place myself -- are cowardly, avoiding the moral consequences of what we aren't willing to do.

That may sound harsh, but these are irrefutable claims -- and I have the pop songs to prove it. Of course songs lyrics do not an argument make, but I will illustrate my points the work of popular musicians, whose story-telling reflects the society from which it comes.

Arrogance

Let's start with Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," which he wrote a few days after 9/11 and which appeared on his 2002 CD, "Unleashed."

Keith articulates a desire to strike back that is easy to understand. This reflex to respond violently to a violent attack is part of being human; we all have the capacity for such action. But that does not mean, of course, that military responses are always morally justified. We may feel a desire to strike, but such a desire should be examined in the light of history and contemporary politics. Let's consider one of Keith's verses:

Sadly, the only thing Keith gets right is the recognition that violence is the American way. From the moment Europeans landed in the Americas, they acquired land and resources through the kind of barbaric violence that is all too familiar in human history and a consistent feature of the American story. However, basic moral principles suggest that's not something to celebrate.

Keith claims that the song has been misunderstood, that it was more patriotic than pro-war, and his claim is easy to believe -- in the United States patriotism is often fused with an assumption of dominance and the inherent righteousness of U.S. violence, which is precisely the problem. But before we write off Toby Keith as part of some reactionary fringe, let's remember that "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" was a popular song that advanced his career. Also consider the fact that he's supporting Barack Obama in the current presidential race. Last month Keith, who has said "me and Michael Moore would agree on a lot of things," offered this analysis:

      There's a big part of America that really believes that there is a war on terrorism, and that we need to finish up. So I thought it was beautiful the other day when Obama went to Afghanistan and got educated about Afghanistan and Iraq. He came back and said some really nice things.

There is nothing inconsistent in Keith's song and these comments. The arrogance that is at the heart of his song has been expressed by Democrats and Republicans alike since 9/11. The assertion that the United States fights for justice in its wars abroad is routinely asserted across the conventional political spectrum and echoed in corporate commercial media. The fact that all of contemporary history refutes that assertion is irrelevant, because we live in a country in which ignorance can be celebrated.

Ignorance

This brings us to Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning," from his 2002 CD, ""Drive."

Rather than critique the sentimental self-indulgence of Jackson's song -- since everything is always about America, it's hardly surprising that in the dominant culture what's most important is how Americans feel -- let's focus on this verse:

This is "willed ignorance," the product of a conscious choice not to know what could be easily known and what one has a moral obligation to know. Again, Jackson is not idiosyncratic; I would suggest this stance is the norm in the United States. Rather than being embarrassed by his ignorance and taking steps to correct it, he offers it up as an indication of higher virtue, evidenced by his understanding of the centrality of love. I agree that faith, hope, and love should be central in our lives. But having faith, hope, and love doesn't require ignorance. Knowledge is a good thing, too, something we can seek out ourselves and help each other acquire.

However, we also must recognize that knowledge won't change the world unless we also have courage.