WTC Political Context2

A Plea for Reason and Diplomacy, not Revenge By Randy Kritkausky We will be adding to these articles, links, and discussions as soon as we can - please send all relevant URLS to links@global-dialog.org with the Subject LINKS

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, I am inspired by the actions of passengers on Flight 93. I find hope in e-mail messages from foreign colleagues responding to the attacks. Together they show us how we must confront terrorists in the 21st century. Despite their personal experiences with a civil war in Tajikistan, the Cultural Revolution in China, Soviet repression in the Baltics, and terrorist attacks in Moscow my international colleagues have sent email messages expressing great shock at the terrorist attacks on America. Significantly most of them have visited New York City and/or the World Trade Center. Terrorists have miscalculated when they viewed New York and its most prominent skyscrapers only as symbols of and for America. They are international symbols with which countless global citizens connect very directly. Partly for this reason my foreign friends have experienced the terrorist attack much as Americans, very personally. In fact, Tuesday's events are not a new development. They are the extension of a century long trend combining mass violence and extremist ideology. More than fifty years ago, the French philosopher Albert Camus reflected on the experience of World War Two violence with words which are relevant today. "Our twentieth century is the century of fear=8A. The years that we have just gone through have killed something in us. And that something is simply the old confidence that man had in himself, which led him to believe that he could always elicit human reactions from another man if he spoke to him in a language of common humanity. We have seen men lie, degrade, kill, deport, torture-and each time it was not possible to persuade them not to do these things because they were sure of themselves and because one cannot appeal to an abstraction, i.e. the representative of an ideology." Camus went on to implore the post World War II generation to embrace reason and to renounce violence. Camus believed that only reasoned dialogue can provide us with an opportunity to be "Neither Victims nor Executioners" (the title of his essay). Camus' lament over failed attempts to reason with those who do not share "a language of common humanity" is most appropriate to the crew and passengers on the hijacked planes who realized that they were about to be used in a terrorist attack. However, the passengers on Flight 93 took Camus' exhortation to be neither victims nor executioners to a new level of personal responsibility. Apparently using their mobile phones to discover what had happened at the World Trade Center, and realizing that they were being forced into the role of victims, they refused to become complicit executioners. Some passengers plotted and apparently carried out a plan to overpower the hijackers. As a result, Flight 93 crashed and spared hundreds or thousands of lives that would have been lost had the hijacked plane continued to Washington, DC. We all understand that "everything changed" on Tuesday September 11. Yet few of us have recognized that it still remains our decision as to what that change is to be. Americans must not become a nation of vigilantes seeking revenge on foreign-born neighbors or accepting a new level of "collateral damage" in military responses to suspected terrorist sites overseas. To do so is to become a mirror image of the terrorists, justifying the taking of innocent lives in the name of "our cause". We cannot allow ourselves to become tribes at war with one another operating on crude principles of vendetta. We should affirm that we are a civil society dealing with extreme crimes of political violence. Consequently, our feelings of retribution must be redirected and channeled through our institutions of justice. We should find, apprehend, convict, and punish the terrorists; this will be ultimate repudiation of their terrorism. The temptation to reach out and attack nations that harbor suspected terrorists, must not destroy reasoned diplomacy. Our allies and even former adversaries are now more than ever poised to work with us on diplomatic means to prevent terrorism. We must seize this moment to build an unprecedented international coalition for the purposes of preventing, not just punishing, terrorism. We must also begin to come to terms with the fact that fragile, complex and interdependent modern technologies have permanently made us vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Increased airline security, redesigned skyscrapers, new surveillance methods, and stronger armies will be no more than a partial solution. We must accept that we live in a world where we, as individuals, like the passengers on Flight 93, may be called up at a minute's notice to defend the basic principles of human decency embraced by an increasingly broad segment of humanity. In a globalized world where potential instruments of violence are widely dispersed, we are now all soldiers and police. We must collectively share the burden and risk of being guardians of human decency. The great challenge is before us: can Americans come up with a uniquely American response which provides for our security and yet preserves our openness and respect for innocent human lives? The whole world is watching and wondering. ****************** In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, I am inspired by the actions of passengers on Flight 93. I find hope in e-mail messages from foreign colleagues responding to the attacks. Together they show us how we must confront terrorists in the 21st century. Despite their personal experiences with a civil war in Tajikistan, the Cultural Revolution in China, Soviet repression in the Baltics, and terrorist attacks in Moscow my international colleagues have sent email messages expressing great shock at the terrorist attacks on America. Significantly most of them have visited New York City and/or the World Trade Center. Terrorists have miscalculated when they viewed New York and its most prominent skyscrapers only as symbols of and for America. They are international symbols with which countless global citizens connect very directly. Partly for this reason my foreign friends have experienced the terrorist attack much as Americans, very personally. In fact, Tuesday's events are not a new development. They are the extension of a century long trend combining mass violence and extremist ideology. More than fifty years ago, the French philosopher Albert Camus reflected on the experience of World War Two violence with words which are relevant today. "Our twentieth century is the century of fear=8A. The years that we have just gone through have killed something in us. And that something is simply the old confidence that man had in himself, which led him to believe that he could always elicit human reactions from another man if he spoke to him in a language of common humanity. We have seen men lie, degrade, kill, deport, torture-and each time it was not possible to persuade them not to do these things because they were sure of themselves and because one cannot appeal to an abstraction, i.e. the representative of an ideology." Camus went on to implore the post World War II generation to embrace reason and to renounce violence. Camus believed that only reasoned dialogue can provide us with an opportunity to be "Neither Victims nor Executioners" (the title of his essay). Camus' lament over failed attempts to reason with those who do not share "a language of common humanity" is most appropriate to the crew and passengers on the hijacked planes who realized that they were about to be used in a terrorist attack. However, the passengers on Flight 93 took Camus' exhortation to be neither victims nor executioners to a new level of personal responsibility. Apparently using their mobile phones to discover what had happened at the World Trade Center, and realizing that they were being forced into the role of victims, they refused to become complicit executioners. Some passengers plotted and apparently carried out a plan to overpower the hijackers. As a result, Flight 93 crashed and spared hundreds or thousands of lives that would have been lost had the hijacked plane continued to Washington, DC. We all understand that "everything changed" on Tuesday September 11. Yet few of us have recognized that it still remains our decision as to what that change is to be. Americans must not become a nation of vigilantes seeking revenge on foreign-born neighbors or accepting a new level of "collateral damage" in military responses to suspected terrorist sites overseas. To do so is to become a mirror image of the terrorists, justifying the taking of innocent lives in the name of "our cause". We cannot allow ourselves to become tribes at war with one another operating on crude principles of vendetta. We should affirm that we are a civil society dealing with extreme crimes of political violence. Consequently, our feelings of retribution must be redirected and channeled through our institutions of justice. We should find, apprehend, convict, and punish the terrorists; this will be ultimate repudiation of their terrorism. The temptation to reach out and attack nations that harbor suspected terrorists, must not destroy reasoned diplomacy. Our allies and even former adversaries are now more than ever poised to work with us on diplomatic means to prevent terrorism. We must seize this moment to build an unprecedented international coalition for the purposes of preventing, not just punishing, terrorism. We must also begin to come to terms with the fact that fragile, complex and interdependent modern technologies have permanently made us vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Increased airline security, redesigned skyscrapers, new surveillance methods, and stronger armies will be no more than a partial solution. We must accept that we live in a world where we, as individuals, like the passengers on Flight 93, may be called up at a minute's notice to defend the basic principles of human decency embraced by an increasingly broad segment of humanity. In a globalized world where potential instruments of violence are widely dispersed, we are now all soldiers and police. We must collectively share the burden and risk of being guardians of human decency. The great challenge is before us: can Americans come up with a uniquely American response which provides for our security and yet preserves our openness and respect for innocent human lives? The whole world is watching and wondering. *********************** Randy Kritkausky is the founder and Executive Director of ECOLOGIA, headquartered in Middlebury, Vermont. ECOLOGIA was founded in 1989 in order to promote environmental cooperation in place of cold war competition. He is also a presenter on Social Change at the School for International Training.