U.S. needs to get back on track

http://www.suntimes.com/news/greeley/595771,CST-EDT-greel10.article

October 10, 2007
ANDREW GREELEY agreel@aol.com

A nationally syndicated columnist has recently urged that Americans forget about 9/11, become adults, and "get back our groove." Thomas Friedman is the senior columnist at the New York Times and hence de facto the most important columnist in the United States. That he disapproves of the 9/11 cult makes it official. As America's uber wise man, he has certified that the national obsession with the World Trade Center attack is a sign of weakness and fear. Yet in the marvelous Yiddish phrase, "Already, all right, enough!"

The attack was a great evil, a terrible blow to the whole nation, a mass killing of innocents, a crime that calls to heaven for vengeance. It was an assault on American pride. It was perceived not only as a crime, but also as a grave personal insult to everyone in the country. It was also a serious attempt to demolish the morale and self-confidence of Americans. In all of these goals it succeeded beyond the expectations of the vile murderers who engineered and executed it. Every time we engage in a national commemoration, we stir up the weakness and fear again. We may wave flags, chant USA USA, and shout FREEDOM! FREEDOM! Such a response after six years may fill television time and newspaper space, but it is not a mature reaction from the people of the most powerful nation in the world. As Friedman says, it is immature and unworthy of us.

Unfortunately, our national leaders (not excluding Friedman in an earlier manifestation) have used the attack as an excuse for responding with chauvinistic fury. We heard promises of revenge -- we'd hunt the terrorists down and take them out. Arabs had killed some of our people. We would kill some of theirs (tens of thousands as it turns out). We must punish the terrorists by going to war against a nation that had nothing to do with the attack. To pursue this "war on terror" we would engage in kidnapping, torture and murder, and we would permit the president to use his power to, in effect, repeal the Bill of Rights. That's how a great nation responds. It flails around and strikes out in ways that diminish the clarity of its convictions and play into the hands of its enemies.