The Common Dynamic Underlying 9/11s

Today marks ten years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, so the airwaves are full of memorials and analyses, but something I find missing from all the talk is recognition that 9/11 does not belong only to America.

One used to hear foreign casualties mentioned, but I have not this week. A total of 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks that day. Of the 2,977 casualties (excluding the hijackers), 372 were from other countries. Twenty-eight were Muslims from European, African, Asian and Middle Eastern nations. I lived in Sapporo, Japan at the time of the attacks. Twenty-four of the casualties were Japanese. And we must not forget that today’s most violent party of God has unleashed multiple attacks on other countries since. The Madrid train bombings, London transport bombings and various attacks in Pakistan come to mind.

Three Chileans died in the attacks ten years ago. September 11 was, however, already an infamous date in  Chile, for it was on September 11, 1973 that a C.I.A.-backed coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in favor of a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet. The regime began in the blood of hundreds and went on to kill thousands and torture tens of thousands. I remember reading in The Japan Times about Pinochet’s arrest in Britain under universal jurisdiction and the ensuing controversy when he was released on medical grounds. One article showed a large caricature of the general, his oversized head framed by the cap and collar of his military uniform and surrounded by skulls. He returned to Chile in March 2000, just months before al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in Yemen.

I mention this first 9/11 because looking at the two together provides a broader perspective. The essence of a 9/11—which, of course, doesn’t have to fall on that date—is a conflict between liberal democracy and its enemies, be they megalomaniacal leaders like Richard Nixon in Washington D.C. or Islamofascists in the deserts of Afghanistan. There is an us-versus-them dynamic in the second 9/11 and the struggle against terror since, but the us with which we should be identifying is not just America, but at another level is any who side with free and open societies.

According to this dynamic, while new towers on the WTC site will be a nice symbol, the best way for us to strike at them is to embody our highest values—refusing to turn intolerant of Muslims here at home or supporting Muslims in their battle against dictatorship in Libya, for example—by siding with the parties of liberty, whatever their nationality.