New York City, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001: The United States of America was attacked by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group. As the American people endured this tragedy, the whole world witnessed the two airplanes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. A few minutes later, another hijacked airplane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of US Department of Defense, while the fourth plane (United Airlines Flight 93) crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
The whole world was shocked because of what they saw. It was not a new US super-production-blockbuster movie but a real attack, in daylight, on American soil.
The world was shocked because no one couldn't believe it could happen in the US, the world superpower, the champion of democracy, the site of global culture - US cinema, television series, Marvel comics heroes, Walt Disney, music stars, fashion world, fast food, Olympics world champions, the American dream.
"September-Eleven" became a turning point in international relations. Like other grand moments of History (World War I and II, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet empire), 9/11 has marked the spot; however, it was neither Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations nor Francis Fukuyama's End of History, but rather Gilbert Achcar's the Clash of Barbarisms (NY University Press, 2002).
Not to mention the inhumanity of the act (again, the victims were innocent people), the 9/11 attacks happened to be a farce because people later discovered that the US had trained and worked with Bin Laden to help oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. In his book, Gilbert Achcar correctly mentioned that it was no surprise at all for the US government to be witnessing a massive attack in its soil. He added that speeches about the unexpected end of America's invulnerability might sound good for the average (unaware) public. But in reality US high authorities had accepted that idea since the early 1990s.
Today, it was precisely eight years ago. And we all know what happened since then. The Iraqi War, "the war on terror" and the hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists. But also the war in Kosovo, Chechnya, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine, as well as terrorist bombings in England, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, the Philippines and Indonesia (Bali I & II, Marriot I & II).
This dark picture of the world is a reality. And no one can endorse these situations. Today, with a shift of the US administration - from Bush Jr. to Obama - the world is still not free from terrorist attacks. But so far, we may admit a relative equilibrium in the international stage, where multilateralism seems to replace unilateralism.
Rethinking 9/11 is thus rethinking the world, rethinking the injustice of our world. It is also reforming and reworking for a better world, at least a more civilized one.
Finally, it is worth bearing in mind that terrorism cannot be defeated only with repression, hunts or Police and Intel activities. Rather with education (especially civic education), control of religious teachings by official Muslims organization such as Muhammadiyah or NU (e.g the formation of clerics), a culture of peace and dialogue.
The economic factor is of great importance too since poverty and unemployment do not necessarily foster terrorism but black markets (parallel market, corruption), which in turn make achievable the funding of terrorist operations.
The writer works as assistant researcher at the Academie Internationale de Geopolitique, Paris, France.
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