A Liberal
Dose
September
15, 2022
Troy D.
Smith
“Don’t Let
Fear Be Our Downfall”
This newspaper is published on Thursdays, but I write these columns
on the weekend before it comes out. I am writing this one on Sunday, September
11.
Like many of us, I’ve spent much of this day remembering the
horrors of that awful event 21 years ago. In addition to the shock and outrage
everyone in the country felt, I was also struck that day with an eerie sense of
déjà vu: having lived in New York City little more than a decade earlier, I had
been in those buildings and, even more often, the plaza below them.
I was also struck by a strong feeling that the terrorists
had made a huge miscalculation. I was reminded of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, which they thought would cripple and demoralize America but which
instead unified the country as never before. As I watched the screen I muttered
aloud a WWII-era quote about the Japanese: “They have awakened a sleeping
giant.”
It appeared I was correct. The whole country seemed to pull
together, to put aside racial, religious, and political differences with a
determination to shine through (with a notable exception, which I’ll discuss in
a moment). Those of us old enough to remember that day remember that feeling,
which lasted for months. It was as beautiful a feeling as the day was
horrendous.
But it didn’t last. And it seemed that when we did tear
apart from each other again, it was far worse than it had been before 9/11… and
seems to worsen with each passing year, until we’ve become divided to the point
of violent rhetoric occasionally bursting into violent actions. At the very
least, we are at each other’s throats ideologically far more than we used to
be. With the hindsight of years of study since then, I have begun to understand
why.
What was Osama Bin Laden trying to accomplish? He was
striking against the symbols of American hegemony. Hegemony is defined by three
things: the most powerful economy, the most powerful military, and the
dominating political system. What were the three targets on 9/11? The World
Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Capitol (or maybe the White House- we’ll
never know). But his plans were more than just symbolic, they were practical.
Remember, the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1980 and spent
the rest of the decade at war there (it has been called their Vietnam). Bin
Laden was one of many Muslims (called mujahedeen) who came to fight there
against the Russians (often trained and equipped by the U.S.) By forcing the USSR
into a quagmire that overextended their resources and lost the support of their
people, the mujahedeen played a large role in causing the collapse of the
Soviet Union, one of the two world powers.
And Bin Laden planned to do the same thing to the other
world power, us. By provoking us into an ideological, resource-draining,
endless, unwinnable war that would cripple our economy and divide our people. I
used to think “wow, it almost worked!”
But now I’m not so sure it didn’t.
There was a fissure immediately after 9/11: Americans began
to persecute Muslim citizens. Or citizens they thought LOOKED Muslim, like
Sikhs from India or Coptic Christians from Egypt. Or anyone dark. Or any
non-white immigrant. Or anyone that scared them by looking or thinking
differently- because we all WERE scared, very scared, on an existential level.
And, as I pointed out last week, when we are scared we behave irrationally and
turn on each other. The fear took hold on 9/11 and has snaked out its tendrils
into every part of our lives.
It was a Terror attack.
We are still in terror, and we are attacking each other. 21
years down the line, we are in danger of tearing our country apart and handing
the ghost of Bin Laden the very victory he hoped for.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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