September 3, 2002
Kamloops Daily News



Next week , September 11 will be remembered soberly by
Canadians and patriotically by Americans. But little thought
will be given to how we got into this mess called the War on
Terrorism.   It could have been different.

Although the terrible events of that day are seared into our
minds, the events that followed are increasingly hazy.

It took hours for the unthinkable horror to become
thinkable.  Once the terrible events dawned on our
consciousness that's when the grieving started; denial,
shock, anger, bargaining.  A year later and survivors
haven't  reached the final stage of grieving of acceptance.

In the days that followed,  the rookie President Bush was
understandably at a loss what to do.  Nothing like this had
happened before and Bush was clearly ad-libbing it.  The
traditional thing to do is to declare war on the enemy.  

But there was no country to declare war against. There were
no invading soldiers to fight.  The enemy remained in the
shadows.

Bush's first inclination was to call for a "crusade,"  
essentially a holy war.   In other words, the Christians
would go in and save the holy land from the infidels.  Bad
idea.

Bush had seemingly forgot how offensive this would be to
his Muslim friends in Saudi Arabia who sit on 25 per cent of
the world's  oil reserves.  When it comes to sanctimonious
rhetoric or a secure oil supply, the former oilman Bush
chose prudence. 

Then Bush came up with "Operation Infinite Justice".  
Muslims reminded him that only Allah can provide infinite
justice.  Then it was "Operation Enduring Freedom," which
suggested a long war.

Finally, it was the War on Terrorism.   At first glance it 
was brilliant.  Who, after all, would declare themselves to
be on the side of terrorism?     The War on Terrorism
conveniently divided the world into two camps, those for and
those against the U.S.  Simple and wonderfully vague.  

Like the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism had no clear
objective, no clear enemy and it's only over when Bush says
it's over.  It's a convenient excuse to do essentially what
you like. 

Afghanistan was chosen as the country to invade and the
Taliban became the enemy de jour.   Bush prepared Americans
for a long "enduring" war.  The soldiers of righteousness
marched into the dusty shell of country with their shiny new
weapons.  It was quite anticlimactic.

The Taliban seem to disappear like dust in the wind.   No
devil incarnate Osama Bin Laden, no evil al-Qaeda.  The swift end
of the invasion left the military boys with their toys
wanting more action -- all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Logically, Saudi Arabia should have been the country to
invade -- that's where most of the attackers of September
11 came from.  But that would never happen (see above).  

And they couldn't invade Germany, even though it was a just
as logical a choice.   Germany  was home to a al-Qaeda  cell
where the plot on World Trade Center was hatched a year
before the attack.   "There will be thousands of dead,"
Marwan Al-Shehhi told a librarian in Hamburg in the spring
2000.  Al-Shehhi is believed to have piloted one of the
planes that was flown into the World Trade Center.      

War has been kind to Bush's popularity and it's been a
profitable year for his father, the former president, George
Bush senior.  "We've never in the history of the republic
had a former U.S.  president  working for arms
manufacturers," says Charles Lewis of the Center for Public
Integrity in the U.S.

The elder Bush works for Carlyle Group, an arms manufacturer for
the War on Terrorism.  Doesn't that seem like a conflict of
interest to you?  President Bush is now pushing for war in
Iraq in which his family will profit.   You would think that
Bush would be ashamed of beating the drums of war on the
solemn anniversary of a sad day.

Bush could have chosen justice over vengeance.  What the
world needs now is redemption and healing, not more war. 
The survivors of September 11 thirst for justice, not blood.

The perpetrators of the September 11 should have been
brought to an international court and faced the families of
those who died that day.  Revenge is sweet but only justice
brings healing and the last step of grieving -- acceptance.  

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