Where do we stand six months after 9/11?
From The Left
by Joseph Waldman
20 March 2002

It was six months, last week, since Sept. 11. Yes, you remember, the whole terrorist thing. Antisocial fiend that I am, I spent most of spring break sitting in the basement and watching TV. For the first three days, the box was flooded with retrospectives and commemorations. There were all the news specials, of course, and the heartbreaking "9/11" special on Sunday, introduced by TriBeCa's own Robert DeNiro. Personally, I was hoping he'd go "Travis Bickle" on camera and that the Army would ship him over to finish up the job, but that's just me.

I don't really mind instant history, but as I was watching all this stuff, I wondered: just what is there to show for it? What have we done so far? What have we learned? Have we done anything? Have we learned? Probably a little bit of both, but not nearly to the point where we should be, only a half year after the most important event of our lifetimes and the shattering start of the 21st century (and maybe the 22nd, as well). Let's go over the tally sheet:

The cleanups in New York and Virginia are going astonishingly well. I thought for sure that the Trade Center site wouldn't be anywhere near finished before 2004 or 2005, but most of the big work there is done, and the Pentagon has projected that its reconstruction will be finished in time for the first anniversary of the attacks. This may sound like mere aesthetics, and it's partly that, but it doesn't make the process any less important for the healing of the national psyche.

Although the more mawkish stuff was kept low for a time after Sept. 11, eventually the un-inevitable happened: the attacks, the WTC, and the "New York character," whatever that may be, became sickeningly marketable commodities, beginning around mid-October (so the kiddies would have something to wear for Halloween) and continuing through today (because it still sells).

Have you seen all thoise bozos in the bars wearing knockoff FDNY baseball caps as they spill beer all over themselves and set fire to their shirts with a dropped cigarette? What kind of cosmic justice is that? Don't get me wrong; I'm all for crass commercialization on most levels. It's an integral part of the American Dream, and I'm not being facetious when I say that, but can you imagine Dresden commemoratives from the Franklin Mint? Or a Taco Bell at the Alamo? If you can, you have a head much more twisted than mine.

Military operations: well, the graveyard of empires didn't have many zombies left, and Afghanistan is free, which is a minor miracle unto itself. Truthfully, I'm not terribly worried about the Taliban pockets still holed up in the mountains. That's the periphery of Afghanistan; they're not even tactically critical to the enemy anymore, and I'm certain they'll be starved out sooner or later.

That's just one theater, however. There have been pinprick operations here and there since the beginning of December (Georgia, the Phillippines), but nothing strategically important. We shouldn't rush--but neither should we wait too long. The wonks can talk and talk all their want about Saddam Hussein and an impending action toward Iraq, and you know what? They'll still be talking when the U.S. begins its operations there--on the defensive, not the offensive.

What worries me here is that we're spreading ourselves too thin without any real contingency plans. Of course I don't know this for certain--I don't have access to classified information or to government planning sessions, and I'm glad I don't--but, when evern the Senate Majority Leader is kept in the dark by the military commanders, I begin to wonder whether those commanders have any plans at all.

The home front: we started off well. Everything coalesced into a stark national (oh, hell, I'll be brave here; I'll say "nationalistic") pride, a controlled bloodlust, and a general certainty of purpose that hadn't been seen since before fifty years of state-imposed "cold war" bred complete ennui in the American people. The militant anti-militants--redux appeasers all--were exposed as the shams and liars everyone always knew they were, and I don't think they'll ever recover. Americans were being kinder to one another. Suddenly everyone was a Boy Scout escorting little old ladies across the street. The clouds were dark, but there were rainbows on the horizon.

Now, in March 2002, it seems like we're back to exactly where we were in March 2001, or March 2000, and so on back down the line--which is to say, decadent and despairing. Greed and chintz again rule the culture. Statesmen--wait, sorry, now they're bumped back down to "politicians"--are squabbling over parking spaces and televised preening. Rudeness has returned, with a vengeance.

This is not Vietnam II. But we're acting like it is. We're meaner, more vacuous, and more sneeringly reactionary than we've ever been before, and at the time when we should be anything but that way. We're back to where we were on Sept. 10, and that is the greatest danger of all--because, once again, we're driving blind, and we know now where things will end up.