WASHINGTON, D.C.—It is always interesting to see what a new political administration will discard from its predecessor’s policies. As the victors after an election have usually demonized their opponents as no better than idiot savants and look upon their labours with a “not invented here” distain, babies are jettisoned along with bathwater.
Thus Jimmy Carter’s SALT II Treaty was deemed “fatally flawed” by the incoming Reaganites. Bush 41’s taxes were not high enough, and Bill Clinton’s tax increases were too high. Commemorations of 9/11 seem categorized with waterboarding and Gitmo.
The political manipulation of 9/11, eight years after the fact, has required new twists. There is no doubt that Bush ’43 used 9/11 commemorations to rally domestic support for global U.S. anti-terrorism policy as well as its military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. That 9/11 was a real attack with real dead from the most massive terrorist action ever mounted against the United States—a life-defining moment of the “Who you are is where you were, when” type—often appeared irritating rather than inspiring to many on the American left. It has been a distraction from the “real” issues.
Perhaps the only positive element in the Bush ’43 legacy will be that from Sept. 12, 2001, forward, there has been no terrorist attack on U.S. soil. How this was accomplished is a subject for its own debate, but significant commemoration of 9/11 redounds to Bush’s credit—and that is enough for the Obama administration to reject it by definition.
Consequently, one discard has been the “America Supports You Freedom Walk,” a joint DOD-private enterprise event honoring 9/11 victims and paying tribute to veterans. The walk, last year from Arlington Cemetery to the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, annually has attracted thousands of D.C. metropolitan citizens. This year, ostensibly for budgetary reasons, DOD did not support the event—a rationale that didn’t pass the giggle test. DOD doesn’t stop supporting an event of this nature because some lieutenant colonel with a green eye shade mutters “cost effectiveness.”
And the Obama-sponsored Congressional action to make 9/11 a national day of service (as well as remembrance) has the buoyancy of the proverbial lead balloon. Ah yes, and we will remember Pearl Harbor by having Boy Scouts escort little old ladies across busy streets.
Thus the first commemoration of 9/11 by the Obama administration had a perfunctory nature to it. To be sure, the president did all the right things. There was a solemn ceremony on the White House lawn and a speech at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.
But the implicit attitude toward 9/11 of the current administration seems more congruent with the attitudes of the now-fired Van Jones than could conceivably have been expressed by any “Dubya” administration member. Jones, the key Obama official working to promote “green” jobs, earlier endorsed a statement contending the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attack to justify an attack on Iraq. When Jones was “outed,” political correctness demanded his departure; however, there was a “more in sorrow than in anger” aura to his leaving.
Indeed, one could hypothesize that if the administration had to choose between getting an Obamacare health program through Congress and avoiding another 9/11 equivalent, it would be a hard call. This is an administration devoted to moveon.org—and 9/11 arouses socially graceless emotions and is primitive in its emotional/ideological roots.
To be sure, the 9/11 aftermath has been frustrating. Americans often do not seem designed for the long haul (despite struggling effectively and successfully during the protracted conflict of the Cold War). We are a throw-ourselves-into-it and get it done society; impatient with ambiguity and frustrated by inconclusive action.
Consequently, it was heartening that one of the major 9/11 commemorative events was held in the Canadian embassy. Addressed by ambassador Michael Wilson and featuring a Newseum film, “Running Toward Danger” combined with a panel session of 9/11 recollections, the memorial attracted several hundred audience members for each of two sessions. We marked the deaths of 24 Canadians on that day.
But perhaps we have “moved on.” A recent poll suggested 49 per cent of respondents believe Americans have forgotten the impact of 9/11. Of 53 U.S. newspapers at the Newseum, only 30 had front page 9/11-connected stories. And on 9/12, media reported “many tens of thousands” demonstrating in front of the Capitol against U.S. President Barack Obama’s health program and trillion dollar deficit spending.
But on 9/12, I walked with my wife from Arlington Cemetery to the Pentagon Memorial at midday, joining a group of about 50 circulating throughout the stark, futuristic design memorial benches. Under lowering skies, it was hardly an uplifting moment. Sometimes remembering is harder than forgetting.
