Should we forget 9/11? How do we move beyond 9/11?

Hello. My name is Amy Tan and I am a junior concentrating in International Relations, specifically the Politics, Culture, and Identity track. To better understand why I am studying international relations and taking this class (instead of neuroscience as was originally planned), I would like to give you a brief account of how I came to be at Brown. I was born in Delft, the Netherlands. My mother is Dutch and my father is ethnically Chinese, but both were born in Indonesia. My mother left Indonesia as part of the Dutch repatriation efforts after WWII and my father eventually left to the Netherlands for college, after his university was burned to the ground for suspected communist activity. And after much bribing. I moved to Mandeville, LA because of my father’s job with Royal Dutch Shell, who financed almost all of my education pre-Brown, then back to the Netherlands, and then to Houston, TX, where I attended an international school.

It’s pretty obvious to me that my life has been greatly influenced by “international relations,” and I am sure you all could point to times in your lives where decisions made somewhere in the realm of international relations affected you, so the decision was an organic one for me. I want to take this class to better be able to contextualize the international forces and happenings of today by studying the past. I also like Professor Der Derian’s approach to analyzing international relations through many lenses, such as the state, the system, and the individual. I think this is the only way to effectively study international relations and draw relevant conclusions about the current state of affairs. Lastly, I was really intrigued by Professor Der Derian’s claim that the need for recognition appears to drive international relations. I am not entirely sure if I agree with this, while I do see the importance of identity recognition, so I am looking forward to hearing more about this issue.

Now, after a much too lengthy (1 paragraph too long, to be exact) introduction, to get into the questions – should we forget 9/11 and/or should we move beyond 9/11? In response to the first question, my answer is a definite no. We should not forget 9/11 because it would be foolish to forget 9/11, just as it would be foolish to forget any tragedy that shapes a nation. For many college-aged people, 9/11 had a major impact on how we see the world and I am sure it impacted how many of us saw ourselves in it. At the same time, however, the constant “we will never forget” campaigns seem to be used in emotional ploys that seek to incite anger, instead of reflection and true contemplation about the consequences of 9/11. This relates to the more complex question – should we/ how do we move beyond 9/11? which I will explore now.

In answering this part of the question it is very important to recognize the difference between forgetting and moving beyond. Just to make it clear, moving beyond does not mean that Americans will stop grieving their losses or that they will miraculously forget what happened that day, but it does require that: (1) the US learns from the experiences of 9/11 to brace itself/introduce itself to the modern system of international relations and then take on a leadership role in that international system, (2) that policy should stop using emotionally based decisions to act rashly in world affairs and that the media should aid in this venture, and (3) that the US seriously needs to re-evaluate its national identity and its stance on human rights and civil liberties, both of which were damaged by legislation passed after 9/11.

The big-picture conclusion from the events of September 11th in terms of international relations is that states are not the only viable actors on the international scene anymore. The US had neglected this truth before, and seems to still have trouble reconciling the fact that non-state actors are relevant to war, as seen in the army’s inadequate training for non-traditional warfare in Iraq, but this will end in the near future. Thus, moving beyond 9/11 entails that the US learn the lessons of 9/11 about non-state actors, so as not to revert to neglecting this reality. This knowledge must inform foreign policy decisions as well as domestic ones relating to individual securities, since that is what was so greatly threatened by 9/11.

Further, as many of the other blogs have mentioned, leaders in the US should stop evoking the emotional trauma of 9/11 in order to prey on people’s fears and vulnerabilities and pass bad legislation. In order to run an effective country where everyone can fully participate, as enshrined by the Constitution, the media should not run emotional campaigns to frighten people, and the government should not condone such behavior. I recognize that this comes from an ideological perspective about US democracy, but it is that ideology which made this country great to begin with. In order to accomplish this goal of creating an informed populace, which has not resulted from 9/11, one would have to overhaul the methods used by the US government and the US media, such as sensationalism and sound bytes. Who can forget the melodramatic music played months after 9/11 on CNN while the words “America’s War on Terror” scrolled across the screen in a big, burly font? This was only effective in inspiring fear in the populace about 9/11, and later about Iraq.

This conceptualization of American values leads me directly to another point about moving beyond 9/11, which has a lot to do with American identity and human rights. In the brief film clip shown in the last class, the woman speaking from the podium said something along the lines of “we must not forget ourselves for those lost on September 11th,” and then continued to describe the various human rights violations the US has committed in the War on Terror as well as the curtailment of several civil liberties that should be dear to American’s hearts. While it is arguable that the US identity as a leader for human rights is very questionable, I still believe that it was the country most identified with leadership on human rights issues by the international community, before the actions taken following September 11th. It is a position I hope to see filled again someday by the US.

The US, government and people, therefore should continue to move beyond 9/11 by reversing actions taken in the wake of 9/11 that severely limited the rights of prisoners taken into US custody and the civil liberties of the American people. One of these legislations, for example, redefines torture so narrowly that many actions taken against prisoners in US prisons have been deemed torture by international organizations like Amnesty International, but have not been pursued in the US courts. While we are on this track of thought, this intellectual debate about American identity and values in relation to human rights also merits a discussion about the greater identity of the United States. With this I mean to ponder the question: What do Americans value? What role does the US want to play internationally? What are US ideals and how do Americans identify?

In short, we (as in everyone) should not forget September 11th because it was an incredibly influential event that had massive repercussions internationally and domestically. We should, however, be able to move beyond 9/11, so that individuals can start thinking critically about the actions the US government is taking on their behalf. The only way to do this effectively is to move beyond the fear and terror and “we will never forget” campaigns to a new enlightenment that calls again for critical thinking, informed citizenry, and a re-commitment to human rights and civil liberties, all of which were negatively affected by the events following September 11th.

Posted by Amy M. L. Tan on September 18, 2007 10:37 AM | Permalink

« From James Hoehlhein: Should We Forget 9/11? | Main | From Priya Pingali: 9/11 Response »