A general view of the World Trade Center construction site in New York, Sept. 8, 2009.(Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Opinion: Eight years later
America owes it to those who have died since 9/11 to be more clear about what it can accomplish in Afghanistan.
NEW YORK — Eight years.
On a beautiful September morning not unlike that day in 2001, I watched the loud, dusty construction site that is Ground Zero waking up.
Cranes stretched across the sky, dump trucks idled and the construction crews yawned in the early morning light where the World Trade Center once stood.
You can’t help but wonder why the hell it's taking so long to build a suitable monument there?
Why is this open wound in the island of Manhattan and the heart of the country not stitched up and healed — at least physically — by now?
Eight years.
And you watch the flag-draped coffins coming off the cargo planes at Dover Air Force Base and the mangled bodies and blown minds of young American servicemen and women coming home to ragged, ill-equipped VA hospitals, and you can’t help but wonder what the hell have we accomplished in Afghanistan? Why is this land, where empires dating back to Genghis Khan have failed to establish rule over the people, still consuming our blood and treasure all these years after 9/11?
Eight years on, and there are no good answers.
Not that would satisfy the cluster of families that will gather here on the anniversary of Sept. 11 to mourn those who they’ve lost. Not that would satisfy most of those who have loved ones still serving in Afghanistan, the place from which the attack on America was authored by Al Qaeda.
This is the truth — as clear as the sky that September morning eight years ago — that faces President Barack Obama at this moment.
Obama inherited a war where the ends are ill-defined and the means are inadequate, a struggle that went too-long neglected under President George W. Bush to think about victory in any conventional military sense.
The task now in Afghanistan is to recognize these facts and resist the military inclination — the instinct of the beast — to draw more and more troops into a doomed conflict.
Obama will need to listen to his Vice President, Joe Biden, who has warned about the dangers of escalating the conflict. He needs to be sure he is not operating out of fear that the far right will bludgeon him as weak or being swayed by generals who while often brilliant and convincing are selling war because it is what they do.
09/11/2001 !!!!!:
i was in the U.S. NAVY.. i understand the capabilities of just one nuclear powered attack submarine, that costs the American taxpayers, $$$$$2.3 billion to build..... they are everywhere and only several very important people know where they are...
what i would have done after the 9/11/2001 attack after verifying for certain, for sure, who the enemy was, send one attack submarine to that part of the country and blow most of it off the map !!!!!
my hero, role model is and always will be, President Harry S. Truman...... he saved thousands of American lives by making a decision.... it wasn't an easy one, but he made it.... if you are playing any game, it is paramount that both teams have the same copy of the rule book..... do not hesitate, just do it !!!! amen.
It would be nice to think you're exaggerating when you recommend, "one attack submarine to that part of the country and blow most of it off the map," but you are probably serious. A nuclear attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan could result in disaster for the entire world.
As for Mr. Sennet's article, it's refreshing to flip the equation and demand accountability after 9/11 instead of revenge. I also agree with the need for an entirely new election, but the results may be the same since security won't be any more improved. And it's just not feasible to continue development in Afghanistan without additional troops. Afghan forces aren't close to ready to taking over security whether we add more or train better; Iraq is still having problems with its own security forces. Either add more US troops or plan a withdrawal. The Trench is always debating Afghanistan at www.hadalzone.blogspot.com
With all due respect to all of those that have died, both Americans and their declared or undeclared enemies; the comment to destroy many more humans with nuclear submarines only exhibits why the world continues to hate America.
It is time for Americans to grow up and become citizens of the world.
Isn't it a good thing Joe Public that Americans died by the millions and left millions of gallons of their blood all over Europe so that Europe could hate us and think of us as children. When they come for you, Joe Public, we will not be there as we were in l918 and 1944...we are grown up Joe, just not as cold hearted as those who enjoy what our blood made possible. And, why would you think that we wish to become part of a world were murder, corruption, and nannyism seems to be what that "world" is all about.
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