Here is my September 11 commemorative piece. It is more or less in fragments, because while I was supposed to be working on it, I was busy trying to arrange a flight back to Maryland to put down my dog of 13 years. I finished up the end a bit; you can see my bad mood growing by the conclusion. Meanwhile, my boss is listening to some dreadful choral music, typing with tears streaming down her face. Fuck you.

Breakdown, by Bill Gertz, is one of many tomes (and there will probably be many more) doing a Rashomon on the greatest tragedy to ever befall any group in human history. I am, of course, talking about George Lucas’ announcement that he will not make a third Star Wars trilogy.

Gertz’ thesis isn’t exactly honest. While it purports to be an expose on the “intelligence failures [that] led to September 11” it is actually a criticism of Democrat policy-makers in Congress and the White House, and their appointees, who, blinded by political correctness, allowed our once great spy agencies go to the dogs. This book could have been written before September 11th (it might well have existed as a first draft), and has in fact been written before September 11th, many times. It’s just those attacks are used as a political club.

Basically, Gertz argues that we’ve hamstrung our intelligence efforts, ignoring national secirity for the sake of some liberal nicey-nice ideal. He made me all misty-eyed for the days when the CIA assassinated Castro. Oh, wait.

Among his criticisms: because the CIA is not allowed to use assets with human rights abuses on their rap sheet, they are no longer able to infiltrate grops like Al Quada. It's not like someone like John Walker could, right? Of course, he had the advantage, being a young, white college student (to Gertz' credit, he acknowledges this, although I wouldn't be surprised if he said it was impossible a year ago). Gertz complains that is like forbidding the FBI from using Mob informants (I was sort of surprised by that anology; Gertz strikes me as someone who would deny there was a Mafie). Not exactly. It’s more like forbidding the FBI from teaming up with the Gambino Family to whack a New Jersey mayor who’s not cooperating with the unions. I bet an honest bureaucratic reading of the regulations in question would allow the CIA to use "mole" assets; they just wouldn't be able to overthow Allende again. Or work with death squads to whack American nuns in El Salvador. You know, sissy pinko shit like that.

My favorite example in the book of evidence ignored: Executive Decision, the Steven Segal-Kurt Russell actioner from a few years back, which I, like so many people, didn’t see. Apparenlty, this piece of cinematic hackwork should have been a real wake-up call for national security operatives. If only we had listened!

***

The events of September 11th reverted a lot of us to our lizard brains, some more or less immediately; Tom Clancy was on the air within hours smugly reminding the consumers watching CNN that he predicted a high-jacked airliner crashing into the White House in a book that was available at supermarkets everywhere, and of course Ann Coulter was calling for us to go literally Medieval on the Middle East with a revived crusade. Of course, some of us managed to snap out of it. Most of the people on camera, sensing the opportunity to shill some books, make a buck, or strip Americans of their civil liberties (do they get a cash bonus for that?)

The biggest disappointment has been the reaction of the left. I could give or take the right-wingers. Assholes, to a one. But as a long-time anarchist and lefty, I’ve been slack-jawed at the response of what I used to think as the common sense left. I have to agree with Christopher Hitchens in this interview: for so long they’ve been used to being the opposition that the Left can’t acknowledge when the evil right-wing powers that be are doing something right, in this case the overthrow of the Taliban.

I’m not a born-again Republican here. There’s overwhelming evidence that the War On Terrorism will become a massive cluster-fuck, and a lot of time for it to happen. But taking things one step at a time, it’s hard to objectively argue with going in to Afghanistan, toppling the Taliban and installing a new government. Ironically, this was exactly the sort of intervention the Left was calling for when the Taliban was taking bazookas to all those staues. Naturally, the new government in Afghanistan will be a different bunch of fascist psychotics, but they won’t be religious fascist psychotics.

Which touches on the why everyone hates America. Because in every opportunity since the end of World War Two, when faced in the Third World with a choice between supporting indigenous popular democracy and propping up a tyranny with a homicidal madman at the helm (and that we think this is our choice at all is part of the problem.) we’ve taken the madman every time.

I wouldn’t agree with people who say America has gone to hell with our good intentions. Our intentions are rarely good. But I can’t agree with the Chomsky Left, perpetually attacking the Great Satan we live in. One of my co-workers complained last year that America was just as bad as Taliban-led Afghanistan; Noting that I’m the only man in the office, I observed I was also most likely the only one who was circumcised. And yes, the death penalty is bad; it’s just about the worst thing about American society, but luckily that puts us light-yards ahead of a society that practices gang-rape as a form of criminal punishment. America doesn't have any right to march 'round the world making decisions for others, but we do have a responsibility to correct the wrongs we've inflicted, such as propping up the Taliban, or even Saddam Hussein.

***

Call me a starry-eyed dreamer, but I like to think if the hijackers knew their attack would cause an endless spasm of self-pity on their target’s behalf, they may well have reconsidered. Who would have thought the day would ever have come when the mass of braying, assholish New Yorkers would grow a moral high ground? And wasn't DC attacked, too? Maybe not...

That's what gets me. We're the fourth largest country in the world, we consume something like 80% of the world's resources, we pretty much can do whatever we want, and yet Americans whine because a statistically insignificant portion of our population was disintegrated along with a famously ugly piece of real estate. Harsh? Yes, but try living in Jerusalem for a couple weeks, where on a weekly basis teenage girls strap themselves with dynamite and ball bearings, put on their make up and head over to the market to blow up some Isrealis. That's terrorism. The USA is fundamentally impervious to terrorism, becuase we are such a large, populous country. Maybe for a few days last year a jet overhead could make us shiver, but that feeling is gone, despite the best efforts of the government and the media to keep it on us. In Seattle, one can see the locals a little jealous even; we're a world class city with three pro sports teams, and we deserve some worl-class terrorism, too. Here, they still regurgitate the news about that terrorist arrested at the Canadian border 30 months ago, never mentioning he was on his way to California to blow some shit up there, and imply instead that the Space Needle was the target. New York and Washington, DC are very far away.

***

I used to be basically pro-terrorism. Not in favor of civilians getting killed or anything, and certainly not of my country being attacked, but as a method of warfare that allows the little guy to compete, bring it on. When the US bombed two cities in Japan in 1945, and said they would continue destroying cities until Japan surrendered, that was terrorism. When the US bombed civilian populations in Iraq and Vietnam, that was terrorism. The acts were designed, not for military advantage, but to demopralize the population and hopefully their leaders would surrender. That's what terrorists do, on a smaller scale, against us. At this point, I think it is an ineffective strategy. Japan may have surrendered, but Vietnam didn't, Iraq hasn't, and America won't.

***

I suppose I’m not one to talk, adding as I am to the noise surrounding this anniversary. Jesus, my boss was commenting last week how “eerie” it was that her milk expired that day. I didn’t think it was odd at all, except that I had bought some milk the night before, and it expired on the 16th. So she got kind of ripped off.

I'll follow up later today with some ha-ha-hilarious email I exchanged with my old roommate who worked in DC, a year ago today.