A day of infamy

There is no shortage of remembrance and insight today, plenty of discussion about what we've lost and where we're going, and I honestly have little to add, as I don't particularly want to speak for others and it seems a little self-indulgent to just speak for myself. Still, in our ADD culture it's helpful to have self-imposed moments of reflection if only because they allow us to step outside the yesterday-today-tomorrow focus that tends to preclude strategic thought and overall understanding. In that spirit, there are two things that particularly strike me now, five years after our lives were divided into before and after periods.

The strategies and tactics of our nation's leaders have greatly harmed overall American interests. I must give credit where credit is due: we have not suffered a significant terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 2001, and that is a relief and a success. It is also in spite of, not due to, the strategic efforts of our counter-terrorism strategy. Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the history of the U.S., remains free to taunt us and plot against us, and the fact that he still breathes the same air as the rest of us is a continued affront and a national embarrassment. Our military is bogged down and discouraged in Iraq, not due to lack of popular or media support, but thanks to incompetent leadership and obstinate strategy. The U.S. government is hated throughout the world, partly for its policies, but perhaps more so because of its attitude and posture. We have squandered the opportunity to build a grand coalition of allies against authoritarianism, desparation, and humiliation, the major causes of hatred towards a West so far ahead of much of the world that we have little capacity to understand these concepts on more than a superficial level. I worry our failures since 2001 will haunt us for years to come.

Then there's our domestic response. Terrorism is designed to cause terror. The tactic is often used to further a political end -- which may be as specific as statehood or as nebulous as greater popular support -- but those are goals for the ones who are not terrorized; the point is to achieve those aims through fear created in the targets. In the days and months and years after that fateful day, we heard a great deal about the importance of continuing to live our lives, how if we didn't go about our daily routine (shopping, flying, having that 14th beer, whatever) the terrorists would "win." Somehow, though, continuing to embody American ideals became conflated with continuing to spend money and avoid introspection or sacrifice. While we made sure we still attended football games, bought gas-guzzling cars, and ignored anybody who said anything should change, millions of people lost sight of the changes happening before our eyes.

The true American values, the ones that have carried us for over two centuries, slowly eroded. Privacy. Speech. Assembly. Dissent. Cooperation. Debate. I believe in strong and effective national defense, as does virtually every American, and I believe part of that defense means staying true to our historical values. How is it that our quest for normalcy has brought us to spying on our own citizens without cause or judicial oversight, to torture, to warning against dissent, to accusations of treason against those who disagree with our leaders, and to the kind of hysterical fear that is the very aim of those we hope to defeat? What happened to "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" and "Give me liberty or give me death"? Do we only hold fast to American values if they're threatened by outside forces? Someone else said it better than I:

"Different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful . . . if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country . . . Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

Most people remember the words with which Patrick Henry closed this speech, in 1775, but the entire statement is something to behold. In his spirit, and the spirit of the millions of brave and committed Americans who followed him, let us fight for our values. Against terrorism, against oppression abroad, against our own fears, and against the menacing specter of willful blindness at home. There are greater American values than shopping, and to hold onto them, I, too, am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.