Bin Laden Won, I Thought to Myself that Day…
Bin Laden won, I thought to myself on that early October day in a motel on Panama City Beach with college classmates. The TV was on and the broadcast brought to our attention that the bombing and soon-to-be invasion of Afghanistan was beginning. There were cheers and high-fives. “Yeah, we don’t have a p***y President!” Apparently, I was in the minority. The “War on Terror,” an ultimate oxymoron, makes just as much sense as an orgy for virginity. To me, it never sat quite right.
“Never forget,” they say. The flags were flying high all over the country, “United We Stand.” Along with the bloodthirst that was spreading like a plague, the seemingly empty sentimentality has also bothered me. A couple of years later at a sub-shop in Tallahassee Florida with my at-the-time girlfriend, whom I unintentionally started a fight with when I said that was a load of crap when I saw “United We Stand” on television. In what way have we been united? In attacking a country that we sort-of blamed for attacking us (because we attacked and destabilized them for decades) to satisfy the bloodthirst for revenge by the average American? You know what, most were united. United by rage and bloodthirst without stopping to think through the best way to respond. This left knots in my stomach twenty years ago. I was less afraid of another attack than I was of what we would become. I may not have known that I would go on to be a minister and theologian, but the convictions permeated my 19-year-old soul, even if I could not clearly articulate why.
Well, Congress went right along on September 18th, 2001. Remember the name Barbara Lee? Many today do not. She was the only vote, yes, the only vote, against the war in Afghanistan across both chambers. Even the legendary John Lewis as well as the outspoken critic Bernie Sanders voted for war, but not Lee. It was not an easy road for her as she was labeled a traitor. According to the Seattle Times, she was moved by Rev. Nathan Baxter, the dean of the National Cathedral, who said in his opening invocation:
“Let us also pray for divine wisdom as our leaders consider the necessary actions for national security, wisdom of the grace of God, that as we act we not become the evil we deplore.”
Lee said the following,
However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, ‘Let’s step back for a moment, let’s just pause, just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.’
She was called a terrorist, a dog, and racial slurs, and some said they wished she was in the towers. This was twenty-three years ago. Children born on that day can now buy alcohol. Where has society come in 23 years? Rather than seek wisdom, rather than seek answers, we sought revenge, and where has that gotten us? Can revenge bring back the dead? Can revenge serve true justice? I am not saying that those who perpetrated the attack or those planning to do so were not at fault nor am I saying they shouldn’t be stopped and captured. While I am mostly a pacifist personally, I realize a nation cannot be a pacifist, which is why early Christians distanced themselves from formal politics and military service. A state cannot be a part of God’s kingdom, despite what revisionist historians and certain populist politicians tell you.
For the first many years following the attack and Congress’ approval for military action at the discretion of the President, the American people, by and large, wanted revenge driven by emotions. We did not want answers. We wanted sentimentality. We wanted and still want images of the towers with the stars and stripes and “Never Forget.” We want images that remind us that someone else was at fault and require no inward examination.
Aside from the momentary feeling of solidarity, what are we supposed to learn from such statements, such images? A week after the horrific attack, the vocalist of the at the time popular metal Band, System of a Down, who happened to be of Armenian descent from Beruit, wrote an essay title “Understanding Oil” where he outlined how decades of US and European interference in the region, often regarding oil, destabilized the region and created a breeding ground for radicalization, and some of such radicals were funded by the US and were our attackers on that infamous day in September twenty years ago. How was this insight received? Howard Stern asked if he hated America. Oprah Winfrey wanted to run a special “Is War the Only Answer?” and she was told, “Yes! go back to Africa.”
Now, 21 years later, after the much-needed exit from a country that did not actually attack us, Afghanistan has fallen faster than an “injured” soccer player at the World Cup. Thirteen US marines were killed during the operation to remove US troops, citizens, and Afghan allies adding to over 360,000 civilians killed due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Add this to the nearly 3000 people in the towers, on the planes, or in the Pentagon. 19 men took the lives of nearly 3000 people and our nation’s response killed a population greater than the population of Boise who had nothing to do with the attack. Where are we twenty-one years later? What have we learned, individually and collectively?
We are quick to politicize this move either calling for President Biden’s impeachment or remarking about former President Trump’s setting of the plan in motion or his idea to invite the Taliban, not the acting Afghan government, to Camp David for a “secret meeting.” Let’s face it, all four administrations since the first bombing campaign have been responsible but the rhetoric we choose to broadly share or to keep quiet about is as divided as the Red Sea during the Israelites’ escape from Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. A friend writes how glaring the hypocrisy of silence from his progressive friends on social media regarding the mess of the withdrawal. He’s right. Our choosing of moments to be outraged versus silent in this age of hyper-partisanship is absolutely hypocritical and the overwhelming majority of us, myself included, are guilty. So, where are we twenty-three years later?
Are we a stronger safer society that seeks wisdom to better understand the world around us, or do we continue to force our way in the world through emotion and desire? It appears to me that our society is more emotionally driven than 23 years ago. We are a society quick to fight to keep the Christian religion central, whether that’s the 10 commandments in courtrooms, a former President fighting against non-existent Christian persecution, or a current President quoting a Hebrew profit to justify going against the Sermon on the Mount to avenge the dead Marines, all the while not actually seeking the Wisdom of Jesus or the Epistles from his apostles suggesting to not let anger control us.
Memes have been going around about how we need to live as we did on September 12th, 2001, because we were not divided by race, gender, or class. That sounds great except that our unity was rooted in rage. The millions of Muslims and Arabs in this country might not have felt like part of the unity. We must never forget how our emotions get the best of us. We must never forget how quickly we can lose ourselves in the face of catastrophe. We must never forget how 3000 lives turned into more than 400,000 lives. Add to that the trillions of dollars that could have helped feed, clothe, and meet the healthcare needs of people around the nation and world, but instead went toward destruction. Let us never forget. Let us look to the letter from James where he reminded us that we must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. Our country played into Bin Laden’s hands. Had we slowed down, that may have been avoided.
Now, what can we learn as individuals from this? How can we mourn without turning our lives into the next chapter of The Punisher? How can we seek justice without losing ourselves? What does this twenty-year, painful and tragic case study teach us about our faith, our beliefs, and how we live it?
