Where were YOU on September 11? A Retrospective

Here's a retrospective from last year, when some readers, MOGS and I answered the following questions:

1.  Where were you on 11 Sep 2001?

2.  What have you observed on the international scene since then?

3.  What have you observed in your own personal space since then?

Chairman Tao writes: (his blog has been sadly silent for almost a year now)

1. I was in a meeting in a hotel in Paris...My company would not allow me to fly back to England so I had to go overland and through the Channel Tunnel.  Somehow being in a tin can in a tunnel under water was seen as preferable to a similar can in the sky by our Corporate Travel Bureau.

2.  9/11 has become a passport for any western leader to use to justify actions that erode human rights and defy international laws.  A lot of the actions, that the US and UK have taken in the name of those who have died, have done little more than make a similar attack more likely...Very few people seem to have stopped and asked themselves fundamental questions, [such as] what has driven such hatred against my nation?" It seems that searching questions are deemed unpatriotic or an affront to the dead.

3.  I have grown older without growing wiser.

Carly writes:

1.  I was in an AP Government class, senior year of high school in New Haven CT. They announced the attacks on the loudspeaker and I knew in my gut at that moment that the most important person in my life—surrogate father, best friend, soul mate, confidante—a man who had survived the 1993 bombing of the WTC, was dead.

2.  I realized that I was completely ignorant of world history and politics...I began reading, asking, investigating---learning as much as I could about what had led up to that awful day.  Before 911 I had never known anyone who served in thee US military—well, other than my grandfathers who were in the army during WWII. I had a very smug and condescending attitude toward anyone who did serve—the usual sheltered, liberal elite view that these people were either stupid or psychotic, or that they simply had no choice due either to poverty or growing up in some backwater where there were no jobs...I was under the impression then—as some people (amazingly) still are—that if only we would talk instead of fight, there would be no war….no violence…no threat to us.

And I thought then that war and terrorism came about as a result of something we did wrong—that if we would just mind our own business there would be peace; if only we’d talk to our enemies and find out what was bothering them there would be harmony. I actually thought that if only no one would volunteer to fight for us there would be no fighting...During this time of awakening and study, I learned how wrong I’d been about the US military….how wrong I’d been about who joins and for what reasons. People I knew joined---people who were smart, privileged….people who had endless other choices….people who delayed or interrupted their educations….who sacrificed high paying jobs—to step up and do what needed to be done."

3.   I grew up. And I moved my space to NYC where I went to college at one of the most outspokenly left wing schools in America. One of the first things I did when I got there was fail a class because I felt I had no choice but to stand up to a professor who wished death-- “a thousand Mogadishus”-- on the US military. Just a year before I might have agreed with him—at least in principle, if not in language or degree..I continued to educate myself—met brilliant students from all over the world and all across the spectrum of ideas; took classes with some of the finest minds in academia in history (including the middle east), philosophy, religion (I read the Quran and Bible--carefully-- cover to cover, as well as exegeses of and commentaries on them), political science… I learned how to argue—also how to listen and learn.

I don’t believe that “they” “hate us for our freedoms” and I don’t believe that “they” hate us because we’ve done evil in the world or offended them in specific ways we can “fix” either. I think “they” are people who want power; “they” believe passionately that “their” way is right, and “they” are willing to die for it—as well as kill for it. There’s nothing we can offer them except complete surrender—to their power and to the oppressive, intolerant laws they claim derive from the Quran. I don’t think "we" have meaningful bargaining chips in a negotiation. And I don't think "they" will stop attacking us until we defeat them--militarily and economically.

C-Chan writes:

1.  I lived in the Pentagon neighborhood when it happened...When the second plane hit, we were called down to the office of our senior official, a Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS), where we watched on CNN as the Pentagon story suddenly unfolded in front of our eyes.  The DAS told us not to wait for the official dismissal, so around 10AM, my colleague and I had already flagged down a taxi heading to Virginia.  We drove across the 14th Street Bridge and onto the GW Parkway, driving right past the billowing smoke that looked like a volcano. I felt like we were in a war zone; for all I knew, there were many more attacks were planned that day and this was just the beginning. We listened on the radio as each tower's collapse was reported... last year I moved to Dupont Circle, so I don't have the constant reminder of that day five years ago.

2.  All I can say is that I agree with Chairman Tao. Especially I am saddened that we squandered the goodwill we had immediately after 9/11 and added fuel to the fire of anti-Americanism (some of which is also rooted in economic friction from globalization).  By the way, at the Pentagon this morning, Cheney and Rumsfeld made speeches referring to the current situation in Iraq, which I found crude and inappropriate. Blatantly manipulative, and not respectful of the victims.

3.  Five years later I'm still working for the U.S. Government, in the field of international relations despite the anti-Americanism. I'm also more personally attached to this city, Washington D.C., which was my place of birth but only recently became my home.

MOGS wrote his own dedicated post for this:  (MOGS) 5 Years Ago Today (now 6 years ago, of course)

The Mad Pigeon Writes:

1.  Where was I?  The "Dynamics of International Terrorism Course" at Hurlburt Field, FL.  No kidding.  When the instructors flashed the news up on screen we all thought it was part of the class.  you could've heard a pin drop--showing an attack on US soil to a room full of military personnel?  The rage was silent but palpable.  Class was canceled the rest of the day, but we were back in our seats the next morning:  and the attack was already rolled into the course ware.  Were we mad?  You Betcha.  But we were also all military professionals, and thus put aside the raw anger and studied the new curriculum with the same academic vigor expected for any historic scenario.

Thankfully I was billeted on base, so I didn't have to face the same commuting delays resulting from the heightened security level.  But here I was away from home, with a scared Hummingbird and minions under base lock down a thousand or so miles away at Hanscom AFB, MA (she said no one could leave their houses except for short grocery runs).  And being the attack was staged from Logan Airport in Boston and the airport was closed, I was stuck in Florida for a day until Logan reopened.  I'm sure for some folks an extra day in Florida would've been a bonus, but I really wanted to get home given the circumstances.

My grandmother passed away suddenly on 16 September, mere hours after I got home from Florida.  My uncle (who lived with her at the time) said she was very worried about me, despite the fact she'd spoken to my mother and wife who both assured her I was fine.  In fact, my uncle said grandma wasn't the same for the rest of the week up to her death.  She was scared--she remembered Pearl Harbor, and the sacrifices made after that attack.  My uncle's convinced the fear broke her heart.  And Life.  I got home exhausted, and said to myself I'd call my grandmother the next morning after I got some sleep.  I get to live with that decision the rest of my life; the only salve is grandma and I had a huge heart to heart talk just weeks prior; a goodbye, if you will, I wasn't expecting so soon.  So everything I wanted to say had been said, and I have some peace with that.

We interred her ashes next to my grandfather (CPO, USN, WWII) at Arlington on 19 September, in full view of the damaged Pentagon.  I think C-Chan will agree with me when I say the damage was more awesome in person than what you saw on TV (my twin brother, who was living in NYC at the time, watched tower 2 collapse from his apartment window, and expressed the same sentiments).

2.  As for the international scene, I agree with everyone:

We weren't attacked in a vacuum.  The signs were there: rage against US "imperialism" had been building for decades, we'd been attacked before, and we'd build a track record of either pulling out when our nose got bloodied or making a half-assed fire-and-forget missile retaliation (damn that Bill Clinton).  The political-military complex didn't hear the chatter, or chose not to listen.  Crises aren't good for the quiet, sleepy comfort of entrenched bureaucracy.  We had to strike back.  We had to prove we weren't the easy push over Osama had come to believe we were.  And in a number of Middle East states force is a sign of strength--had we backed down AGAIN, we'd of been the laughing stock of the conservative Muslim world and found ourselves in, at the very least, a difficult diplomatic position.

But here's the kicker:  military force is just one tool in the state's toolbox, and a heavy, blunt one at that.  I buy into the Clauswitzian view that if you sacrifice one tool for the sake of another you're doomed to fail.  In other words, we MUST match our military efforts with diplomatic efforts.  Send the extremists on the fast track to Allah while holding out olive branches and positive benefits to the moderates.  Ultimately military force only treats the symptoms, but it's diplomacy that'll assuage the causes (if not fully treat them).    In short, I want to neutralize the extremist threat, but not destroy goodwill with other actors in the process.

3.  The war's kept me gainfully employed, tipped my hand towards Middle East academia, imposed no small level of sacrifice on my family, earned me a few free meals at Denny's and other tokens of respect, and quite a bit of bling for my uniform.  I feel comfortable saying I've done my part.  But around me?  Aside from higher gas prices have we suffered as my grandma did following Pearl Harbor?  Not really.  Most folks seem just as internationally blinded now as they were 5 (6) years and 4 days ago.  As for me, despite my desire for a full court press with all the diplomatic tools of the state I've never forgotten 3,000 people were killed on US soil by a foreign enemy, while around me folks have moved on to the next Ramsey case or celebrity child birth.  Such is the life of the man working in one of the boiler rooms that keeps the rest of the populace dumb and happy.

THE MAD PIGEON ADDS:  This time, though, the Ramsey case and celebrity child birth have been replaced by Britney's sagging belly on the MTV Music Awards and the Celebrity DUI du jour.

Mad Pigeoneers, I invite you now to revisit the above questions and tell your own stories.

You can also find a comprehensive list of 9/11 tributes over at Texas Freds.

Capt Mad Pigeon, US Air Force
Spc-Sgt, US Army 1994-1999

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