In the days and weeks following Sept. 11, many of us were not sure what to think, what to do. For us, the world had changed — the seemingly distant conflicts on the inside of the newspaper were suddenly on the front page, having manifested right on our front porch.
But the stories of heroism on that fateful day and the resolute determination to fight terror wherever it may rear its ugly head reaffirmed what we knew all along — despite its faults (and there are many), the United States is a great country committed to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It was comforting to fall back on what we truly believed and find our faith in that belief strengthened immeasurably.
Of course, those that love this country were not the only ones to rely on their core convictions — those that hate the United States did the same. It was this crowd that said we deserved the attacks; ’twas a shame that a few thousand died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, but what about the Iraqi children?
“If only the U.S. would stop being such a bully, then their attacks would not have occurred,” they lamented.
The more extreme claimed those in the Pentagon and World Trade Center were not innocents; rather, they were willing cogs in the corporate-military hegemony that is trying to suppress the entire world for oil (or something like that).
Groups like International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) organized rallies and demonstrations, including this past weekend in Washington, D.C., seeking to emulate their heroes, the protesters of the ’60s. And that is where this all comes apart; the ’60s protesters mattered; A.N.S.W.E.R.’s do not.
Whether or not you agreed with the protests of the ’60s, there is no doubt they left an indelible mark on this nation’s conscious (in the case of UW-Madison, a physical mark, readily evident to anyone struck by the all-glass back wall of Sterling Hall). Just like A.N.S.W.E.R., our parents’ generation protested war and racism, with a healthy dose of women’s rights tossed in.
The difference then was that the morality of the United States’ position on these issues was very much in doubt. Take war, for example; I think the United States was right to fight the spread of communism in Vietnam, but I certainly condemn the travesties that occurred in that struggle. Moreover, I can understand the arguments of those opposed to our actions, especially since communism had not yet been explicitly revealed as the farce it was.
There is no such lack of moral clarity when it comes to the current war on terrorism. Muttering moral platitudes and chanting catchy phrases does not disguise the fact innocent citizens of the United States were targeted for no reason. I am not talking about legitimate questions about the direction of the war; A.N.S.W.E.R. and their ilk insist the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is unequivocally unjust, yet they offer no alternative for dealing with terror other than completely extricating ourselves from the world — a practical and moral impossibility. Small wonder no one listens.
A.N.S.W.E.R.’s other big issue — racism — reveals even more about the moral bankruptcy of their cause. Refusing to accept that the U.S. war on terror is just or that internal anti-terror measures are motivated by security concerns, A.N.S.W.E.R. claims the government’s actions are motivated by racism. Noticeably lacking is an explicit condemnation of a twisted vision of Islam that calls for the elimination of all who refuse to abide by its radical interpretation; just as glaring is a refusal to acknowledge the conflict in the Middle East, supposedly a motivating factor for these terrorists, will only be addressed to their satisfaction by the eradication of Israel. The truth is, it is the pluralism and tolerance of the United States that so infuriates bin Laden and his ilk; to suggest we are pursuing him because we are racist is a joke known to everyone but A.N.S.W.E.R.
Fortunately for A.N.S.W.E.R., they have not compounded their illegitimacy problems further by calling themselves A.N.S.W.E.R.S. — Act Now to Stop War & End Racism & Sexism. It would be even more difficult to condemn the U.S. actions in Afghanistan in the name of women. After all, it is the women in Afghanistan who have been the biggest beneficiaries of the U.S. actions. The papers are still filled with stories of women’s first day in school, or their relief to be able to simply show their faces. Certainly a far cry from being locked in a burning building because their faces were uncovered, which happened recently in Saudi Arabia.
No, that simply would not have worked. The reality is the ’60s are over — protesting the United States on the same issues of war, racism and women’s rights is silly when it entails siding with those who embrace terror, intolerance and oppression.
Benjamin Thompson ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.
