More than one million innocent Iraqis died as a direct result of the US invasion of Iraq with some estimates putting that number as high as 2.4 million . . . more than 400,000 civilians were killed during the war in Afghanistan . . . estimates put the number of civilian casualties from US drone attacks at 25,835.
By Fareed Khan
All of us who are old enough to remember know where we were on September 11, 2001 when we learned about the terrorist attacks on the United States. We all remember the horror of what we saw unfold that day on news reports, and our sense of sadness and anger for the innocent lives lost in New York City, Washington DC, and in the Pennsylvania countryside. If we were Muslim we also remember our sense of fear and foreboding as we waited to find out who was responsible for these criminal acts which ended 2,977 lives that day.
In 2002, on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the US began an annual tradition of holding remembrance ceremonies for the victims of that horrific day at the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks, and when we in the West watch this year’s remembrance events and the retrospective documentaries and news stories, we must look at ourselves in the mirror and ask why there is so much attention paid to this one terrorist incident, and why the countless innocent men, women and children killed in America’s “war on terror” (the vast majority being Muslim) are ignored? In addition, we have to ask why 1.6 billion Muslims continue to be vilified by right wing media and right wing politicians in the West, and targeted by Islamophobic national security policies for the actions of a very small minority of people who professed to be Muslim.
Following the attacks the US, Canada and other western governments put in place draconian national security and anti-terrorism laws that violated the civil liberties and human rights of their Muslim citizens. These Muslims were fortunate in one respect in that they had some recourse to the courts if they felt their rights were being violated. However, the same was not the case for tens of millions of Muslims outside the US who fell victim to America’s “War on Terror”, who had no recourse to the courts, who lived life in fear of a bomb or missile landing in their midst, or who were dehumanized by members of Western military forces that invaded and occupied their lands.
The US used the 9/11 attacks to justify and launch their global anti-terrorism campaign, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, and other military operations targeting potential terrorists located in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other Muslim nations. American politicians, from President George W. Bush on down, who green-lighted the military response to the attacks seemingly did not give a thought to the innocent civilians who were sure to end up as “collateral damage” at the hands of Western military forced. Ultimately, American led anti-terrorism efforts resulted in the deaths of well over a million innocent Muslim men, women and children. It is not a stretch to say they all experienced the same sense of terror felt by the victims of the attacks on the US in 2001.
According to a study released in the United Kingdom in 2008 more than one million Iraqis died as a direct result of the US invasion of Iraq during the five preceding years, with some estimates putting that number as high as 2.4 million as of 2018. The Costs of War project estimated more than 400,000 civilians were killed during the war in Afghanistan. Estimates from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Cost of War project combined put the number of casualties from US drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen at 40,201, with at least 25,835 of these deaths being civilians.
In the years since the attacks the 9/11 victims, their families, and those who survived and live with lifelong injuries have seen much sympathy and compassion from American society, and are remembered every year during 9/11 anniversary ceremonies. The US government created a fund for the 9/11 victims that compensated them or their survivors to the tune of US$7.375 billion.
However, the innocent people killed as a result of American led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and anti-terrorism operations in other countries, are never mentioned during 9/11 events, or at any other time of the year. If they received compensation from the US government (which has been rare) it was a pittance compared to what 9/11 victims received. Their deaths, and the life altering injuries of those who survived American bullets and bombs, have never merited annual remembrance ceremonies or media events. No political leader has delivered a stirring speech for these forgotten victims who experienced terror as they lay injured or dying, nor would they care to.
So the question must be asked, why do these innocent lives not register on the collective consciousness of Americans the way the lives of 9/11 victims do? Why do annual remembrance events focus solely on those killed in a terrorist act 20 years ago on American soil and ignore the estimated two million plus innocent people killed, and the hundreds of thousands living with lifelong injuries and psychological trauma, who have experienced the carnage of America’s war on terror? Why are there official expressions of sympathy and remembrance for the 2,977 victims of one act of terrorist violence while relegating the terrorized victims of US led military operations to the dark recesses of our communal memory?
In the opinion of many Muslims, ignoring the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of America’s war on terror during 9/11 remembrance events for the better part of two decades implies that their lives have lesser value in Western eyes than those of American victims of terrorism. Furthermore, the fact that these victims are primarily Muslim also demonstrates American prejudice towards them, and it highlights America’s sense of exceptionalism.
To give universal meaning to 9/11 remembrance events, and demonstrate humanity for all innocent victims of terrorism, the terror felt by those killed in a wedding party in an Afghanistan village in 2002 when their celebration was bombed by the US must be acknowledged. We must remember the terrified face of a 12 year old Iraqi boy who lost his limbs, his parents and his entire extended family in 2004 when a US missile struck his home. We need to recognize the grief of a Pakistani family from the country’s northern tribal region whose 67 year-old matriarch was killed and her two grand-children seriously injured by a US drone. We have to think about the Afghan family with seven children who were killed last month in Kabul by a missile fired from a drone. The time has come for us to show our humanity by commemorating the loss and trauma experienced by the tens of thousands of families in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other Muslim countries who have lost loved one to the bullets, bombs and missiles of America and its allies, who have been devastated by the carnage of the war on terror, who mourn their dead in anonymity, without international media attention.
There is no question that annual remembrance events for the victims of the 9/11 attacks are appropriate. However, if the lives of all innocent victims of terrorism are to be valued equally an annual remembrance needs to happen for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed by US led wars and military operations over the last 20 years who felt terror at the moment of their death, and whose families live with the pain of that loss every day. Whether it happens on September 11th or another day is immaterial. Either way, it is the right thing to do, it is the compassionate thing to do, and it is the humane thing to do.
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