Updated September 15, 2013 3:07 AM
September 10, 2013 -- I wrote the following on September
11, 2006,
the fifth anniversary of the terrorist
attacks on New York City and Washington DC, and emailed it to my list
of email contacts in the hope that it would generate meaningful
discussion. A year later, by the anniversary of the attacks in 2007, my
life had been torn apart and 9/11 came to have a totally different meaning for
me. It was the date that I spoke at my wife's funeral and laid her to
rest. Notwithstanding how the significance of that date has changed for
me personally, for the vast majority of people September 11th will always be
remembered for the images of planes flying into the World
Trade Center. For many of us, we will always remember where we were
when the World Trade Center towers came crashing down.
There have been many events and actions that have taken
place related to the issue of terrorism since that sunny September morning in
2001, and much has been written about this tragic event and its
aftermath. Some of what has taken place include the following: the United
States launched its "war on terror" and invaded both Afghanistan and
Iraq as a consequence; the threat of terrorism has been used to justify the
violation of civil liberties and human rights in the U.S. and many other
western democracies; the American government has spied on hundreds of
millions of its citizens by monitoring their phone and Internet use using
the threat of terrorism as a rationalization; the U.S. has implemented a
campaign of attacks by armed aerial drones in Pakistan, Yemen and
Somalia in pursuit of terrorists despite the fact that thousands of innocent
people died as a result; and hundreds of thousands, of innocent men, women and
children have been injured and killed as a result of U.S. actions in Afghanistan
and Iraq and elsewhere.
While some of the numbers and statistics have changed, the
words I wrote in 2006 are just as relevant today as they were when I wrote
them. Except now we are aware of the lies that were used to justify the
invasion of Iraq. We have seen hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the military
campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq -- money which could have wiped out
the national debts of the most impoverished nations in the world. And we
have seen the threat of terrorism used to justify a lot of unjust and illegal
actions by governments around the world.
 |
| Source: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/03/charts-cost-iraq-war |
As you read what I wrote seven years ago, I ask you to
question why it seems that the lives of those in western countries seem to have
greater value than those of people in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. I ask you to question at
what point will the deaths of the 2,977 victims who died on September
11, 2001
finally be avenged. And I ask you to challenge the rhetoric by the
leaders of western nations about the sanctity of human life when their actions
have led to the death and injury of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
innocent people in far off lands whose daily concerns and desires are no
different than those of the average person living in the west.
*********************
Lament For The Unremembered Dead
Why Are the Lives
of 9/11 Victims Valued More Than of Those of Others Killed In The ‟War On
Terror”
For the rest of our lives most of us will remember where we were on
that September 11th morning in 2001 when we learned of the terrorist
attacks taking place in the United States. We will remember the images,
we will recall our horror, and we will think of the sadness we felt for the innocent lives lost on
that day. And every year on the anniversary of that occasion, as the
media gives us coverage of the memorial events and replays the images, we will
be reminded again and again of what happened in New York City and Washington D.C. on that day.
But what about the innocents in other parts of the world who have have been killed since the 9/11 attacks as a result of the response by the U.S. and other western nations to the terrorist attacks – what about the ‟unremembered” dead?
The people I refer to are the hundreds of thousands innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries who
have died as a result of the ‟war on terror” -- those who are antiseptically
referred to by western politicians and military leaders as “collateral damage”. Those who died
days or weeks after they were injured due to attacks by military forces,
government security forces, insurgents or terrorists. Those who didn’t
have access to medical attention to treat their injuries or who no longer had
access to clean water or electricity.
What about these people?
These are innocent victims who will get no memorials.
Their deaths and life changing injuries are not and will not be an occasion for
special annual media events or poignant documentaries. There will be no
commemorative speeches about them by political leaders. We will not see
the faces of their family members as backdrops for speeches by politicians.
And there will be few in the west that will remember them let alone mourn for
them.
It is conservatively estimated that the west's effort to combat terrorists has
directly resulted in the deaths
of over 60,000 people world-wide (a gross underestimation according to
some), created 4.5
million refugees, and cost the United States more money than it would take to pay
off the national debts of every poor nation on earth. This cumulative body
count does not include those who have died due to the suffering caused by the
destruction of civilian infrastructure (i.e. water/sewage treatment facilities,
power generation plants, hospitals, etc.).
In Afghanistan conservative estimates for innocent civilian
deaths range from 4,500 to over 15,000 in the military campaign to overthrow
the Taliban and maintain support for the current Afghan government. The
fact that the Taliban were deposed has been a positive thing for Afghans but
the fact that the blood of thousands of innocents was spilled in the process
should be something that must be remembered no less than we remember the
victims of 9/11.
In Iraq the website Iraq Body Count puts
the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at between 41,650 and 46,318 since the
beginning of the U.S. invasion to overthrow Saddam
Hussein in 2003. Where are the stirring memorials for them? Where
are the emotional speeches? Where are the TV news specials that talk
about the plight of the families of these victims?
All of these numbers do not include the injured taken home
by their families who died weeks or months later due to their injuries.
If these numbers were to be added then the casualty figures would be in the
hundreds of thousands.
So why is it that deaths of these innocent people do not
register on the collective consciousness of society in the west?
On the surface the answer seems simple enough. Unlike
on 9/11, there are rarely cameras present to record the tragic deaths of these
people. And when there are cameras around, these images hardly ever make
it into the news stories that we tune into on a daily basis. Or the
images are not dramatic enough to make an impact on our imagination.
After all what images from Afghanistan or Iraq can compete with the drama and the
horror of planes crashing into skyscrapers, or of 110 story office towers
collapsing.
But the true explanation may be more disturbing than most in
the west care to admit. The fact is that most in the west don’t want to
know or be reminded of these other victims because to acknowledge and
commemorate their plight and suffering would mean taking a long, hard look at
ourselves. Conducting this self-examination would make us see our own
deep character flaws, admit that there is a racist tinge to public support for the war on terror, and might cause us to realize that western society is not
as civilized as we believe it to be.
After all, how could a civilized society not be incensed
when government policies or societal attitudes paint a whole culture or a world-wide faith as terrorists.
How can a civilized society not empathize with all victims of violence,
whatever their ethnicity, nationality, culture or faith? How can a
civilized society only acknowledge and commemorate the 2,977 victims of one act
of criminal violence while relegating the other 60,000 plus victims to the dark
corners or our collective memory?
Yes . . . today is once again September 11th. And yes,
we should remember the victims of a horrific and criminal act by a group of
zealots. But let us also remember the tens of thousands (if not hundreds
of thousands) of victims of this so-called ‟war on terror”.
 |
| SOURCE: The Guardian |
Let us remember the face of a 12 year
old Iraqi boy who lost his limbs as well as his parents and extended family
when his family home was ‟accidentally” bombed by U.S. forces in 2004.
Let us remember the scores of people killed in a wedding party in southern Afghanistan in
2002 when the celebration in their village was mis-identified as a gathering of
Taliban insurgents and bombed.
And let us try and acknowledge the suffering and anguish of
the tens of thousands of families in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries in
that region of the world who mourn their dead in anonymity, without the
attention of news cameras, without special ceremonies, without the presence of
high powered politicians.
If we as a society can do this, then and only then can we
rightfully claim the designation of a society that is compassionate, just, and
civilized.
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© F. Khan. All rights reserved.
