Five Decade's Warning Unheeded

Choosing Peace

Jen Randolph Reise, WAMM Co-Director

September 11, 2002, will probably be hailed by the establishment as a time to renew our commitment to the “war on terrorism,” with flashy new targets and frightening revelations. Perhaps Iraq, a country already ravaged by twelve years of sanctions, will be next. The Bush Administration seems bent on war, regardless of the facts or disagreement even within Republican ranks.

As we recognize the anniversary of the tragedy, which touched some of us personally and horrified all of us, there are serious questions we need to ask—again—of ourselves, our leaders, and the press: How have the actions of this warmongering country in the last year made the world safer? What other options does a powerful, wealthy country have for addressing the problem of terrorism?

Some of the events that came out of September 11, 2001, were positive. We saw an outpouring of support for the victims’ families from across the nation and the world. Many Americans who had never paid attention to foreign policy were glued to their TV sets and discussing Afghanistan in small-town restaurants.

But that attention to foreign policy and sympathy in tragedy failed to translate into either compassion for Afghan families or analysis of the implications of brutish foreign policy.

And if you don’t learn from experience, you continue to make the same mistakes.

September 11, 2001, was one immense tragedy among many. Gun violence in the U.S. alone took more than 10,000 lives last year—twice as many people as the terrorist attacks. And other shocking events have changed the American political landscape before, like Watergate or the outbreak of the American Civil War. War around the world devastates communities and takes innocent lives, like the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, which killed almost a million people in four months, or Cambodia’s killing fields, or Colombia’s ongoing civil war.

When we can recognize that our tragedy was, like the rest of the world community’s experience, national, personal, and horrifying, we can move on. We deserve no special revenge and get no greater justification. Maybe we can even see the need for international cooperation against the shared opponents of fanaticism and violence, and of the injustice and poverty that are often their roots.

That is not what President Bush and his allies did, however. Instead, they saw the opportunity for political gain in turning the country’s grief into revenge. And so instead we attacked Afghanistan.

When you respond with violence, you create more violence. You also create a war mentality and a war economy. Suddenly, winning, even against a nebulous enemy, is said to require incursions on civil liberties—keeping files on legal groups, closing borders, and recruiting citizen spies. Goals shift to artificially create progress: First we were after Osama bin Laden, then the defeat of the Taliban. Finally, immense cuts in social spending must be made to accommodate military buildup. Why are our schools suffering the worst cuts in years while military contractors get fat?

What does choosing peace look like? Eleanor Roosevelt said that we must work as hard for peace as we do in war. Imagine investing the same resources, people, and careful strategy for a campaign of peace that we do for a war. Sustained nonviolent action could, and has, brought real change, through methods ranging from protest to education to international cooperation.

In fact, the long road to reconciliation has some notable successes. South Africa continues to climb out of the violence and hatred of apartheid. The conflict in Northern Ireland, which seemed so entrenched for so long, just saw the unthinkable: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) apologized for causing the deaths of civilians! The long and rocky peace process was the only way that resolution could have been possible. Peace is hard work, but it creates, not destroys, the possibilities for a just and sustainable world.

September 11, 2002, still offers an opportunity to tell a different story than September 11, 2001: A nation, confronted with tragedy and fear, sought answers and sustainable solutions, valued others’ opinions and others’ lives, protected itself by building rather than tearing down. America is capable of such strategic and peaceful action, if we as Americans insist on it.