FIVE LONG YEARS WITH 9/11

Threat instead of Diagnosis: “Nothing will be the same as before”

By Thomas Rothschild

[This article published in: Freitag 36, 9/6/2006 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.freitag.de/2006/36/06360101.php.]




Can you name the date when the first American bombs fell on Baghdad? Do you know in what year the Vietnam War began and when it ended? What comes to mind when you hear September 11? On September 11, 1973, putschists cooperating closely with the US murdered the Chilean president Salvador Allende –. A military dictatorship was established that lasted 17 years and cost nearly 4000 human lives.

Only the other September 11 seems present. The US succeeded in making 9/11 into a code number marking the beginning of a new era. The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was successfully declared the crucial event of modern history whose actual or suggested implications serve as the cause of all later events. It is no exaggeration to argue that the effect of September 11, 2001 fit the concept of US policy. No conspiracy theory is needed. Only the objective result counts which as everybody knows can be distinguished from the intentions. Israel also did not intend to strengthen Hezbollah when it instigated the recent war in Lebanon. Anti-Israeli fanatics are obviously strengthened.

What was imputed to the Soviet Union from its birth – that it wanted to dominate the world – is pursued by the US since the downfall of the Soviet empire so shamelessly that one can only wonder about those defending this policy. For a long time the United States was not limited to the economic war. No “balance of terror” hinders its use of military force. They do not care about international agreements and claim rights not allowed any other state of the world. The longing to play the role of “good guys” before the domestic American opposition and the world leads responsible persons in politics, military and the economy to seek reasons for their aggressions. Islamic terrorism is used as a scapegoat. With September 11 and its spectacular pictures, a metaphor was found for the enemy that in its apparent concreteness is excellently suited for abstraction. Nine eleven says everything and nothing.

Everyone who observes the endless catastrophe in Northern Ireland knows that economic conflicts are hidden behind alleged religious wars. No one seriously believes “Islam” announces “holy war” for religious reasons against the heavily armed western world. While there are certainly individual fanatics, that is by no means only true for Islam. Jews joining in the anti-Islamic propaganda is somewhat astonishing. How short is their memory? Have they already forgotten that no Muslims murdered six million Jews? In our opinion on Islam, we would do well to remember that Christians persecuted Jews and expelled from Spain in 1492 but were warmly accepted by Turks. Christianity survived five hundred years of Islamic rule in southeast Europe while hardly any other religion withstood the murderous conversion zealotry of Christians..

Today “true faith” is only mentioned at the margin. What we see intensively since September 11, 2001 is the war of the rich against the poor. This war is waged globally and also within the rich countries even if in a somewhat less violent form. The talk of the “third world” in the rich lands is more than a phase.

Several ringleaders of terror are in no way poor. Individuals can only have political success when there are conditions for a massive resonance. American rulers – apparently successfully – persuaded the western world that common interests must be defended against an acute threat in the struggle against terrorism and the Islamic world.

Real dangers exist. Modern technologies can equip individual mad persons for violent acts that were inconceivable in the past. However these technologies were developed by states that thought they would retain control over them for all time. Decades ago, Robert Jungk in his book “The Atomic State” (Der Atomstaat) warned that the possibility of terrorist misuse of nuclear energy could necessitate a police- and surveillance-state that is not less dangerous than nuclear power itself. Robert Jungk’s negative utopia has suddenly become reality. The reference to the nuclear threat that could start from individual terrorists serves as a legitimation for ever more massive surveillance and spying. September 11 provides the accompanying music. “Nothing will be the same as before.” We know today: this was more a threat than a diagnosis.