Why My 9/11 Article Is A Week Late

Last week was the week to write about 9/11 and the horrible atrocities that took place that day. And yet I didn't. I didn't because I feel conflicted about the day. Yes, I knew someone who was murdered that day by the terrorists. And yes I unambiguously fee grief over the loss of American lives. But there is something else to feel at the same time and perhaps the following hypothetical will illustrate that.

Suppose the Palestinians set aside a day where they would mourn all of those who were killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now if they only mourned the deaths of the Palestinians killed in the conflict, then one could say that their mourning is self-serving. Or let's say that it was the Israelis who were going to mourn the deaths of all those killed in the conflict and that they only mourned the deaths of Israelis. Then their mourning would also be self-serving.

Now just as the deaths of Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorism caused Palestinians to be killed or just as the deaths of Palestinians killed by the IDF or settlers caused Israelis to be murdered by terrorists, so to the people we killed with our foreign policies caused one of our enemies to strike back in the only way they could, they employed terrorism.

Who did we kill? With both our attacks on Iraq during the first Persian Gulf War and our sanctions that followed, many Iraqi civilians, including hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, to die because our military destroyed their infrastructure and thatcoupled with the sanctions that prevented the repairing of that infrastructure murdered so many Iraqi children. We could say that the same applies to the deaths of Palestinians from Israel using the military to impose their control over the region.

The deaths of Iraqis from the sanctions and the harsh occupation against the Palestinians are the reasons why we were attacked on 9/11. Those deaths could never justify the 9/11 atrocities, but they did serve as a reason for a violent retaliation in the only way one side can when there is such a military mismatch. Thus, if I forget those Palestinian or Iraqi casualties,  my sentimental reaction any 9/11 ceremony is self-serving. My praise for the innocent American victims of 9/11. And by self-serving I mean that I using my praise of the innocent 9/11 victims as an excuse for self-praise. That is self-praise of my nation.

We need to remember that when a government that owns a large military uses that military to bully other nations, then some from those nations can only strike back in a way that we consider cheating: they cheat. They cheat by attacking innocent civilians. They cheat because they cannot hope to win a straight up brawl between the two military battes. In addition, we should remember James's warning from the 2nd chapter of his epistle  which prohibits us from having preferences. And not remembering those who died on the other side of the conflict is showing preference.

There are two things we should mourn on the anniversary of 9/11. We should obviously  remember those murdered by the attacks. But we need to also remember those whom we attacked in hopes that we stop our government from bullying others around.