Where is America ten years after 9/11?

09/06/11

Where is America ten years after 9/11? What is the state of our nation? Our economy teeters on the edge of depression, our tax dollars have been squandered invading Iraq and Afghanistan, our civil liberties are continually being eroded by an imperial Presidency and a self-serving Congress, and our Supreme Court has decided that corporations have the same rights as citizens.

 

Here, in brief, is the state of America ten years after 9/11: more people are in prison (according to Wikipedia “The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world”); more children go to bed hungry at night, (Hunger in America 2010 reports “hunger is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States.”) and the USDA reports that the use of food stamps is 34% higher than two years ago (SF Chronicle, 9/4/11.)  In addition, more families are homeless, more people are jobless, the nation is deeper in debt and, oh yes, the rich pay less in taxes.

 

While corporations are being given unprecedented power to influence our elections, the rights of ordinary citizens are being shredded by government officials and Supreme Court Justices, all in the name of a “war on terror” that was created and hyped by the very people who say we have to give up our right to privacy for the sake of security. Lois Kazakoff writes in her 9/11 anniversary piece (SF Chronicle, 9/2/11) “Congress has moved to allow expanded surveillance and increased penalties for those who associate with groups deemed dangerous.” And that is how a police state comes into being: guilt by association; and the police powers have exclusive authority to decide which groups are “deemed dangerous.”  As peace activists are increasingly targeted by the FBI it appears the people most likely to be “deemed dangerous” are those opposed to the government polices of unending war.

 

What else can we say of the last ten years? Over 5,000 US serviceman and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; over 150,000 wounded and what have we accomplished? Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the most corrupt and dysfunctional countries in the world, training grounds for terrorists, funded by us. Both General Petreaus and CIA Director Panetta are warning of danger if the CIA and Pentagon don’t get more funds. According to the Center for Defense Information over $1.2 trillion has been budgeted for our wars and enhanced security spending since 9/11. A new federal report shows $60 billion lost to war zone contractor waste and fraud alone. Thanks to tax cuts and wars, we are deeply in debt and have nothing to show for it. Are we any safer ten years later? Is the world a safer place? If we are safer, why do we need ever-increasing defense expenditures? Money that could have been spent on education, healthcare, the environment, our cities, our national parks, our coastlines, has gone down a rat-hole.

 

What more? The futile 40 year old war on drugs continues unabated as the bodies pile up and corruption becomes a way of life. Our oceans and beaches are more polluted, our infrastructure of roads and bridges is failing, our college students face yearly increases in tuition and fewer choices, but the situation is not entirely hopeless. We could still turn this around. We have the resources and energy to go in a new direction and re-assert traditional American values of respect for others and for the rule of law, but we need more than empty talk about hope and change.

 

It was only days after 9/11 when I saw a flyer lying on the sidewalk with just two words written on it in bold, black print: “Bush knew.” I remember thinking, are they talking about 9/11? Can anyone seriously believe that Bush knew in advance about 9/11? In the years since, as I watched our country launch an unnecessary and and disastrous war on Iraq, and use the events 9/11 as justification, it started to make sense. The profound warning of President Eisenhower against the threat of the military-industrial complex to America’s democratic institutions has proven prescient.