Are you a September 12th American?

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page has become notorious as a home for wingnuts who want to give their vile screeds some credibility. Here's the latest:

Are You a 'September 10 American'?

This amazing example of propaganda asks the absurd question "How did fighting terrorism become a Republican cause?" This, of course, is the Biggest Lie of the Big Lie campaign currently being waged by the Republicans. However, Mr. Kaplan manages to conflate the political equation with the wider 'culture war,' dividing us into church-going, Bush-loving, heartland-based "September 11" Americans and secular, Bush-bashing, city-dwelling "September 10" Americans, to wit:

When September 11 Americans look back at the attacks, they see an event that requires an overhaul of national priorities. When September 10 Americans look back at the attacks, they see an event whose significance is emotional, even spiritual, but most of all historical. What they do not see is the opening salvo of a years-long struggle, much less its implications for politics and policy.

...

That most of us have resumed living by September 10 rules would hardly matter but for the inconvenient fact that America's foes still play by September 11 rules. Alas, the conceit that the war on terror will not require broad sacrifice, which persists even when circumstances do not justify such a conceit, has obscured this unpleasant truth. Preventing a repeat of September 11 will be difficult enough. Even more so if an attack that should have prompted a special vigilance prompts only a glance backward.

Totally aside from the outrageous untruth of the idea's very foundation, there is a larger problem to this article: it assumes that Bush's policies are somehow effective.

How many times have Islamic fundamentalists successfully attacked America? Other writers have been talking about how "successful" Bush has been, since we haven't been attacked in America since 9/11. How many times was America attacked by al-Qaeda or its spiritual cousins between the failed WTC bombing of 1993 and the successful attack in 2001? And yet Bush is a success and Clinton is somehow behind the failures of that day. (A mere three days before the attack, the administration was threatening to veto a bill that would give 600 million dollars to counter-terrorism operations. That was their attitude to al-Qaeda before September 11, 2001.)

What has really happened is that some people are, indeed, still trapped by their fear on that horrific day -- the "September 11" Americans -- but the rest of us have moved on. We do, in fact, recognize that we must face al-Qaeda, but we are no longer seeing the conflict through the emotional trauma. By looking at the root causes of the hate and fear of our enemies, we can devise real solutions to these problems. And we see that they don't involve conquering nations with no connection whatsoever to the attack. We no longer accept that we must, or even should, blindly follow a leader who has no idea what he's doing, where he's going, or (worst of all) why this fight is going on in the first place.

We also recognize that all of the world's other problems haven't gone away. Global warming has proven all too real (2003 was the hottest overall year on record), "free trade" that isn't is destroying jobs and lives in every nation, our fundamental liberties are being stolen wholesale, and the American dream is being hijacked by the very same villains who are causing and/or supporting all of the above problems.

We are not "September 10" Americans. We are September 12th Americans, who have recognized the wound inflicted on the nation's soul and accept the need to address it -- but we also realize that we cannot react merely out of grief and rage. America must look for real solutions to the problem, and we cannot do that while in a state of "with us or against us" war without end. Neither can we afford to ignore the myriad other problems facing our fragile Earth, and we fully realize that as well. Liberty and justice for all is what we are fighting for, and September 12th Americans realize that al-Qaeda is not our only enemy in that battle. We only wish that one of our foes wasn't the current executive administration of the United States.

That administration knows all too well that September 11th has come and gone. They are fully aware that the challenges represented by that day cannot be met by fury and violence alone. They don't care. They have lied, hidden evidence, played shell games with the American people, and done everything in their power to keep our fellow citizens in a "September 11" state of trauma. "September 11" Americans, after all, don't ask uncomfortable questions or demand accountability. A hypnosis of terror is the order of the day, and every American that can be trapped in that day of evil is an American who isn't looking at the Rove Regime's dismal record.

Which brings us to the demonization of questioning, of doubt, and of division. "September 10" Americans, we are told, are weakening our defenses. They are undermining the Great War of Our Time. The pinnacle of this demagoguery marks these Americans as outright traitors, and implies (or sometimes states directly) that they are as much the enemy as the terrorists -- and deserve the same treatment. They must be destroyed.

Except there are no such people. Those of us who have freed ourselves from the tar pit of 9/11 propaganda are moving forward, not back. We are trying to engage the situation constructively, with our eyes open to both the past (including all the parts the NuCons want us to forget) and the future. That is why the NuCons are waging total war on us. We see what they have done, and are still doing, and call it what it is -- betrayal.

So, to my fellow September 12th Americans, I salute you, and encourage you to keep telling the truth, keep using your rights, and keep fighting for our common dream -- liberty and justice for all. To the "September 11" Americans, I only ask you this: why are your leaders so afraid of dissent?

(/) Roland X
"Our Constitution ... gives to bigotry no sanction." -- George Washington