Should We Forget 9/11?

Jennifer Magalong
IR1350: History and Theory of International Relations (Der Derian)
Response: Should we forget 9/11?
Due 09/18/07

About Me:
I am a senior at Brown concentrating in International Relations (Global Security) and History (East Asia). I have taken a number of International Relations courses at Brown, including PS40, PS139, PS148, IR128, and IR170. I am taking this course because I feel that it is essential to have a strong theoretical background when studying contemporary political concerns and foreign policy issues. Furthermore, as a student of history, I am very interested in learning about the development and evolution of the broad “interdiscipline” of International Relations.

Should we forget 9/11?
There can be no doubt that September 11th was a tragedy of immeasurable proportion. One can never forget the human element of the terrorist attacks – the terrible, incomprehensible loss of human life. September 11th has been the Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, the fall of the Wall of the twenty-first century; the day that was burned into the collective conscience of entire nations. In the years following September 11, 2001, the United States government has enacted a number of policies intended to eliminate threats against America and its allies, calling for constant vigilance and awareness.
Certainly it is important to recognize that American is not invulnerable – that the United States, as any country, is susceptible to international threats. However, there is a point where caution and vigilance evolve into a kind of widespread, institutionalized state of fear. When people like Maja Zehfuss argue that the United States must move on and “forget” 9/11, one would hope that they are not calling for people to forget the human tragedy of the terrorist attacks. Instead, they are calling for the United States to move beyond the defensive attitudes adopted after the attacks – such attitudes that led people to disrupt the global cooperation and support following the attacks and to circumvent established legal practices. America’s initial defensive reaction has developed into an offensive, preemptive foreign policy that has alienated many of those who had come to its aid in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Tragedy has become politicized in such a way that the scope of human tragedy has become almost an afterthought. The idea that the American people are under constant threat of attack leads to a mentality in which defensive reactions and aggressive policies trump rational thought and logical reasoning.

Posted by Jennifer Magalong on September 18, 2007 01:00 AM | Permalink

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