THE REAL TRAGEDY OF 9/11

Recently, I watched Oliver Stone’s latest film; World Trade Center , which came out a while ago in most other countries, so I was beginning to think that Indonesia's board of film censors had a problem with the content or something, but now its finally showing at theatres across the country.

The film itself is OK; an above average Hollywood drama/disaster movie that focuses on the themes of family love and human survival, and there were quite a few sniffles in the theatre, as the final credits began to roll, an indication that the movie has hit its mark with audiences worldwide.

Upon arriving home afterwards; I received a phone call from a family member in England and in the course our routine conversation, after mentioning the film, the person made a comment about how we are living in a new era, in which there is a battle going on between the West and the Muslim world and that the latter are trying to impose their faith on the planet in a kind of war of ideology, similar to the old cold war battle of Western nations against the threat of Communism. The comment rather irritated me, as many of the Muslims that I know, are far more secular and liberal minded than many of the so called Christians in the UK, let alone some of those bible bashing Christian fanatics in the US, so we ended up abruptly putting the phone down on each other in order to prevent the argument from boiling over any further.

But there is a point here, in that the United Sates, since 9/11 has sought to unite its people and other nations in and around the so called war on terror, using this global threat to justify controversial wire tapping programs and other draconian security measures, as has happened in the UK, using exactly the same type of “they’ll get you if we don’t” fear inciting rhetoric that was used during the cold war. Those right wing war mongers at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel have even coined the new phrase; “Islama-fascism”, so that their viewers can conveniently label this new enemy, which comprises of most Muslim countries and those who criticize Israel and the current Bush administration, and it is these “Islama-fascists”, according to the Fox pundits, that we all need saving from as we did from the communist threat in the past.

Probably intentionally and rather unexpectedly; World Trade Center avoids any references to the terrorist perpetrators of 9/11, or the various conspiracy theories that have arisen since (this is from the same guy who made JFK), but the most striking aspect of the film, is seeing the news footage from shortly after the event, showing a time, that now seems unimaginable, when the majority of the world was standing shoulder to shoulder with America, sharing in the country’s grief for its slain citizens and their desire to seek revenge on the evil terrorists responsible. Even the French newspaper; Le Monde declared at the time; "We Are All Americans" (Nous sommes tous Américains) and you almost enjoyed, a rather younger looking President Bush giving all those emotionally charged and patriotic speeches as a prelude to a dramatic call to arms to avenge the terrorist attacks; using the finest Hollywood style rhetoric. That was only five years ago but it seems like a life time ago now.

Since 9/11 and the days that followed, when the US military and their allies rolled into, or rather flew over, Afghanistan to depose the vile Taliban regime with their precision missiles and to hunt down Osama bin Laden (remember that forgotten mission?), a series of majorly depressing and devastating events have occurred worldwide that have dominated the world’s psyche and media, overshadowing those powerful images of the twin towers, buckling under and collapsing in New York City, and pushing them into a distant memory of rather diminished importance.

Predictably, Islamic extremism rose in the years after 9/11, as attention focused on a worldwide campaign to defeat radical Islamic terrorists, but the invasion of Iraq was the absolute godsend for the enemies of the US who were still constricted and stifled by the massive international support for the United Sates in the wake of 9/11. Madrid, London, Bali and various pro American Arab countries have all born the brunt of terrorism; usually directed at those who allied themselves with the United Sates, but how many of those countries agreed with America’s unconditional and clear green light to the recent Israeli destruction of Lebanon, after Israel foolishly, but predictably took the bait of the kidnapped soldier by Hezbollah and, once again, succeeded in reinforcing the opinion of many in the Muslim world; that the Jewish state and America are the devil incarnate? None of America’s allies, not even a visibility appalled Tony Blair, supported the merciless pummeling of Lebanon and its people, an action which only helped to confirm the legitimacy, to the extremists, of the original fatwa against the US by Osama bin Laden and the other Islamic radicals.

It is with a grim irony that perhaps the country that benefited most from 9/11, in terms of its citizens’ security, was Britain, as the terrorist attacks brought an end to the so called armed struggle by the IRA, who had terrorized the British Isles with their campaign of bombings and slaughter for years; murdering civilians, Royalty and politicians alike and even trying to blow up Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her entire party during a hotel conference in Brighton in 1984. The IRA enjoyed a certain amount of open support in Washington, from congressmen such as Peter T.King, a staunch IRA supporter, who, ironically, is now in charge of something to do with America’s Homeland Security and American citizens were the IRA’s principal financial backers, through NORAID, which also helped to procure weapons for the terrorists to use to kill people in Britain. British Prime Ministers repeatedly asked American Presidents to stop the financial and public support given to the IRA, but this largely fell on deaf ears giving some adage to that creed than one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, but after 9/11; a terrorist was most definitely a terrorist, and this hypocrisy was finally brought to an end and the IRA found themselves in their rightful place; on the same terror group list as Hamas and Hezbollah, both of whom also received financing in the US up until 9/11. It is unfortunate that the the people of England and Northern Ireland have to thank Osama bin Laden for that one.

The Omagh bombing, carried out by The Real IRA in 1998, killed 29 people and injured hundreds





Republican politician; Peter King; one of the strongest and most outspoken supporters of the IRA and the Chairman of the United States House Committe on Homeland Security

But last year’s London bombings were more shocking than any previous IRA atrocities, because they were committed by British Muslim suicide bombers; from seemingly stable family backgrounds; two of the men even left pregnant wives behind, along with the equally shocking statistic that as many as 3,000 British born or based people are thought to have been trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan and many since have, apparently, trained others. The videotapes of the bombers claimed that the London attacks were revenge for British supported oppression against their “Muslim brothers and sisters”, clearly stating that they were willing to kill themselves while committing the mass murder of their fellow citizens in the country of their birth. Sadly, Tony Blair’s perceived poodle like behaviour and unquestioning support for President Bush’s foreign policy appears to have put the UK squarely in the firing line once again.



The 9/11 heroes portrayed in World Trade Center seem rather insignificant now, as we are used to seeing carnage and bodies being dragged out of rubble in places like Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, on a daily basis and there are few happy stories in those countries’ disasters, or if there are, nobody makes big budget feature films about them. At the end of the film, the volunteer marine who discovered the two trapped police officers in the destroyed World Trade Center complex announces that he’s going to stay in the marines because “we’re gonna need some good men to avenge this”, which would have been a great Hollywood line if only he had gone on to Afghanistan and hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden; Rambo style. Instead, he went on to do two tours of duty in Iraq and contributed to inflaming the radical elements of the Muslim world into plotting further acts of extreme violence against his country and its allies.



An estimated 700,000 Iraqis have been killed since "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began in 2003, according to a recent survey

Various countries in Europe and Asia have suffered violent terrorism from Islamic extremists, which has helped fulfill the terrorists’, as well as the right wing elements in Western countries’, aim of creating an “us and them” divide between the Muslim world and the West. Tony Blair might not have to deal with the IRA anymore, as his predecessors did, thanks, in part, to Al Qaeda, but he now has to deal with an arguably far more dangerous threat from within Britain’s own population. One of President George W.Bush’s favourite lines, probably written for him, is; “we fight them over there (The Middle East) so we don’t have to fight them here (America)”. But Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories are home to millions of people who are now suffering misery and oppression every day, which feeds the fire of hatred and radicalism in the Muslim world, which ultimately encourages radicals to strike at the West and its allies. As appalling as 9/11 was and as heroic as the characters in World Trade Center might have been, one can’t help thinking that the real tragedy was all that happened afterwards; all that was lost and could have been gained. We can only hope that with the Democrats gaining control of the United Sates government and with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, along with Tony Blair’s promise to step down within the coming year, the world can finally try and start to learn from from the painful lessons which began on September 11, 2001 and are continuing today.