My say on 9/11 - one year on

THE world was horrified on Sept. 11, 2001. It watched
in disbelief the most damaging and well-orchestrated
terror attack at the most prestigious symbols of the
United States of America. One could have never
expected an assault of that nature and magnitude, and,
sure enough, it changed the shape of the world and
turned international relations into an unprecedented
course where nothing conventional remained
conventional.
The final count of the dead in New York is put at
around 3,000 -- the highest ever deaths in a single
terror attack.
It was an act whose impact, direct and indirect,
spared no one even in the remotest corner of the
earth. No other incident in history had brought out
that kind of effect on human life. But have we learned
anything from it?
Our hearts and minds went out to the victims of the
assaults in New York and Washington and of the crash
of a fourth hijacked plane in Pennsylvania and their
families. No one could help feeling a sense of grief
and helplessness over the loss of human life. It was
never without a choking feeling that we could listen
to the tragic stories of fathers, mothers, sons,
daughters, brothers and sisters who lost their lives
in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New
York and the Pentagon in Washington not to mention the
fiery crash in Pennsylvania.
And then came the recriminations as the US declared a
war on terrorism. Today, after Afghanistan, the
Taliban and Al Qaeda, the US is still on a
confrontational course with the Arabs as if the entire
Arab World was behind Sept. 11.
As Americans, and indeed the rest of the world,
remember the direct and indirect victims of the
Sept.11 attacks, the sole focus should not be grief
and sorrow over what happened and a growing sense of
revenge. They should ask themselves why 9/11 happened
and why it has led to a growing divide between the US
and the Arab World, with the strong relationship the
two sides enjoyed until one year ago fading into
oblivion.
It is indeed surprising to observe that few in the US
leadership seem to have given any serious thought to
the fundamentals of what had led to Sept. 11.
While there could be no justification for the Sept. 11
slaughter, it is obvious the US could not come to
terms with the possibility that something was wrong
somewhere in its policy that might have built up into
the aerial assaults.
What we witness today is a worsening situation of
anger, aggressiveness and sense of revenge prevailing
in Washington. Perhaps justifiably so when seen from
within a strictly American vantage point with little
regard to others in the world who suffer from the
fallout of misguided American policies.
But the soul-searching should start with trying to
answer the key question: Why was the US, the country
that is being looked up at by the rest of the world
for its lofty principles of freedom, justice and
dignity for mankind, the target of the biggest terror
attack?
We have even heard absurd assertions that those behind
the attacks were motivated by frustration over their
failure to reach the American level of life and
economic prosperity. Such narrow-minded concepts are
not even worthy of being dignified by any further
comment.
The real reason is in the background but will not
manifest itself in all that it entails unless the US
suspends its knee-jerk military reaction stemming from
an overwhelming sense of being wronged and of
self-indignation backed by a conviction of being
superior to everyone in the international scene.
The real reason for the growing confrontational mood
that threatens to destablise international life is
America's policy of riding roughshod over all
international norms and seeking to target those who
do not fall in line with American interests.
The continuing military ride based on the cowboy-style
"you’re either with us or against us” insistence
would only worsen the situation because the global
situation could not be narrowed down to such
simplification.
Americans should learn to make a distinction between
vengeful emotions and the cold, hard facts of modern
political history and come to grips with political,
cultural, and historical dimensions of the
relationship between the Arab World and the US.
Instead of framing the Arabs into the mold of an
eternal enemy, they should try to understand that the
Arabs were the worst sufferers from the one-track
American approach in the Middle East; and, they stand
to suffer even worse if the US presses ahead with its
designs to reshape the Middle East, starting with its
goal of "regime change" in Iraq.
Have the American public ever been given an
opportunity to reflect on the fact that an
overwhelming majority of the Arabs respect what the US
stands for in terms of principles but hold in contempt
their official policy of being blind to the state
terrorism practised by their "most important strategic
ally" -- Israel?
Have the American public ever been given an
opportunity to absorb that the Arab World is opposed
to terrorism in all its manifestations and has been
and is a partner in the US-led war on terror in all
parts of the world, but that they make a distinction
when it comes to imposition of solutions that seek to
serve strictly American and indeed Israeli interests
in the Middle East?
The first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks not be
an occasion for the Americans to work themselves into
building a rage but should be an opportunity for them
to scrutinise themselves and their place in the world
and realise that answers to these troubling questions
are within themselves.
And once they realise the true answers to those
questions, then that would be the beginning of a new
world order that would ensure justice, freedom and
dignity for all.