I know a lot of Americans and many others find images of what happened on September 11 in 2001 upsetting. I also believe absolutely that those who don't learn the lessons of history are condemned to relive them. So I backed off a bit and chose this image to open today's post. It shows the twin towers burning, but from a long ways away. The rest can be filled in by readers' imaginations. Or not filled in at all if you prefer. 

I wept that morning. I was going into a grade 11 class in a few minutes and some kids in the hall saw my tears, I suppose. I kept muttering to myself, but I suppose some kids heard that too. "No matter what the perpetrators of this crime have against the people of the US, the people in those towers did not deserve this. This solves nothing. It only will make everything worse." 

And it did. The perpetrators quickly revealed themselves and their sanctuary. Al Quaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden, an engineer from Saudi Arabia, but operating out of Afghanistan. The Bush Administration was without mercy in its retaliation. Invade Afghanistan, find Bin Laden, kill whoever resists. And I suppose this made sense at the time. Eventually, years later under Obama, US forces did hunt down and kill Bin Laden, though I for one was hoping they'd get him in custody, put him on trial, and sentence him to life in a maximum security prison. That, it still seems to me, would have done far more to take the wind out of the sails of his organization. Public shaming. Let him glower or plead or whatever on t.v. His appearing in an open court would have made whatever he said look pathetic at best and repulsive at worst. 

I still don't get the invasion of Iraq. Bin Laden got no support from Saddam Hussein, material or otherwise. The two men hated each other. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No one even brings the matter up anymore, though at the time, the "wmd's" were the reason for the US and Britain's going into Iraq. More hatred and misunderstanding of each other making matters worse. Maybe Iraq was all just about oil. 

But I will close today by saying why I think of that day often and deeply. Misunderstanding of one another's cultures caused that catastrophe. Bin Laden and his crew were already mightily offended by the presence of "infidel" armies on the sacred territory of Islam, i.e. American bases in Saudi Arabia. But the Americans were there with the permission of the leaders of Saudi, even at their request. There was no invasion of Saudi and there was no intention of trying to force the country to operate under American laws or customs. In fact, Americans living in Saudi are careful to respect local customs any time they go off of their bases and everyone who has ever been there can tell you so. 

But there were so many other affronts to the dignity of the Muslims of the world, Bin Laden said. Israel's even existing is considered by many Muslims to be an intolerable insult. Jerusalem was under the control of various Muslim regimes for most of the past 1300 years. That it should pass out of their control and into the hands of a people they mostly despise is unbearable. 

And we could go on. The grievances are many and most of them are far from resolution.

But I'll repeat one last time. With the exception of Israel, which remains a sticking point (hard to resolve though not impossible), the Americans have tried harder than any regime probably that has ever existed to deal fairly with all of the other countries of the world. Goods bought or sold on open markets and fair prices paid for them. The regimes that the US supports in all of the countries of the world today are nearly always ones that can make order for their citizens and can set themselves on the road to democratic institutions, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights. That's why the Americans support them. Even though these leaders are often just the best of a bad lot, they are better than chaos. Whom would we have America support? 

And whatever one may think of how successful the American efforts have been, the people in the World Trade Center did not deserve what happened to them on that terrible morning. They were just going to work.

A small instance of what could come to pass if we don't learn to "get" one another's cultures and, yes, to love one another. 

In the shadow of the mushroom cloud, nevertheless, have a good day.  


   

                                                                           the Freedom Tower