The author though falls into this mentality again when they were being interviewed. While it is understandable that they would react against American jingoism that ranks all acts against America as being pure evil, their attitude of "understanding" the terrorists is too much on the other extreme. Truly, there are not enough people simply rooting for and thinking about the little people that simply have to make a living or get to where they are going. Most people do not have the political sophistication or are too busy to think about the broader picture.
Unfortunately, is events like September 11, 2001 that frame these extremes clearly. On the right wing side, the war on terror has been an abject disaster. Al-Qaeda and other radicals are stronger than ever. We gave them exactly what they wanted. Osama Bin Laden wanted to bleed the United States economically in his jihad war against America. This is what he has explicitly said. Indeed, in an interview...
He many times bragged "knew how to 'exploit' the "cracks inside the Western financial system', but also that the 'faults and weaknesses are like a sliding noose strangling the [American economy]'"(Was Osama Bin Laden..., 2011).
Frankly, it is hard to see September 11, 2001 as nothing more than the U.S. government exploiting the situation to enrich the war industries and regiment American society along those lines. Certainly, whatever one's view, it is not so much what happened on 9/11 that was important. Even more important was the country that emerged on September 12, 2001, a day on which many of us wish we had never woken up.
Works Cited
Bowman, G. (2001). Thinking the unthinkable: anthropological meditations on the events of 11 september 2001 . Anthropology Today, 17(6), 16-19.
Was osama bin laden an…
