Waiting to commemorate 9/11

Countless memorials are being written to note the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2001, and I have little to add to them. I dislike the 9/11 memorial ceremonies that crop up every year. So much of it seems to be sentimental pabulum from those who make a living by having opinions. I understand the importance of the collective grief and mourning for families of those killed in the attacks. But outside of that small, private circle, most of the ceremonies are addressed to the general public, and this is where I have trouble: the ceremonies try to give public shape, meaning, and closure to something that is still unfinished.

That is because 9/11 was the declaration of a war that is not yet over. We cannot mark this day until we know how this war ultimately ends. The public meaning of 9/11 will be profoundly different depending on whether we can look back with pride or with shame at the war that followed. That means the global war against al Qaeda and, importantly, the war in Afghanistan. 

Most Americans and journalists forgot about Afghanistan between 2002 and 2008. It was the sideshow to Iraq, often used to demonstrate (wrongly) how badly Iraq was going by comparison. The South Asian country also didn’t fit into the grand narrative peddled ad nauseum by foreign policy wonks everywhere about The Vital Importance of The Middle East (an elaborate story in which I am increasingly disinclined to believe). During these years 9/11 memorials were pious, simplistic, vacuous affairs used to berate us for losing a sense of national unity amidst our discord over Iraq.

As soon as the surge in Iraq made that war an inconvenient storyline for most journalists, who naturally prefer to report bad news, they promptly rediscovered Afghanistan and, especially, how badly things suddenly looked (in truth, it was always pretty bad; no one took time to notice until, after Iraq, Afghanistan felt like "news" again.) And so starting in 2008, 9/11 memorials were used opportunistically to raise doubts about the war in Afghanistan. 

This year, following bin Laden’s death and U.S. officials’ pronouncement that al Qaeda is on the verge of "defeat," there is a pronounced tendency to use the 9/11 anniversary to declare victory or, alternately, condemn the entirety of post 9/11 foreign policy. In other words, both sides are ready to say the war is over and to call the outcome. 

I wish it were so, but it is not. The wars grind on. The war against al Qaeda may or may not be entering its culminating phase, but the war against the Taliban certainly is not. I know that it incomprehensible to most folks outside the Beltway. For most Americans, the war was never more than a news blip that did not affect their lives. They quickly moved on and, more importantly, do not understand why we are still there. America’s wars are supposed to be short, easy affairs. If a war lasts a long time, that makes it suspect. Length in war does not compute. Many Americans look askance at a war which, inexplicably, we have not yet won and in which we face a very real prospect of defeat. If it’s that hard, they think, maybe we should give up.

President Bush defined the public meaning of 9/11 this way in his speech before Congress days after the attack: "Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger, we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our Nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail."

That, I think, was the right response, and most of us probably felt it to be right ten years ago. That means we must persevere until the end, until al Qaeda and the Taliban are definitively defeated. The ensuing ten years have been difficult and not without errors, misjudgments, and failures. The war in Afghanistan is long, hard, and tiresome, and Americans want it to go away. Indeed, many have simply moved on. "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11," President Bush said in his farewell address. But he concluded: "I never did."

Bush, and all those charged with responsibility in this war, did not and cannot move on. The war in Afghanistan and the wider war against al Qaeda are long and hard, but they are just, and they merit perseverance. I look forward to the day when 9/11 can be commemorated by victory in a just war.