A date that demands deep reflection from all of us. On such occasions, we should feel obligated to stop and… reflect! This is why a question tinged with bitterness must be asked: was it really necessary to organize two political meetings (UMP and FN) on that day?
Who has forgotten that day 10 years ago?
It’s impossible, especially for those who were able to “watch live” on television as the two planes pierced, like a knife, into the Twin Towers. The power of technology that allows news to be combined and turned into a spectacle.
The act of Mohammed Atta and the other 18 Al Qaeda kamikazes was not an attack, as unfortunately we had already experienced. It was the “first” and, until now, the only act of war by terrorism against a state. But was this act against a state (the United States of America, emblem of imperialism) or against a “civilization”?
The next day, Le Monde headlined: “We are all Americans!” Was the esteemed newspaper truly right?
Two considerations should be highlighted:
– Was the chosen location, New York, more than just an American city? It is the symbol of the “international imperialism” that Al Qaeda proclaims to want to fight in the name of the rebellion of the oppressed and the defenders of religious values. Does New York represent the capitalist imperialism that abandoned them to move towards materialism as they claim?
– Should it be reminded that the 2,976 deceased were from 90 nationalities, thus representing a large part of the world?
A few years earlier (in 1996), Samuel Huntington, a professor at Harvard, had published an innovative political analysis.
In his book, which had resounding editorial success (“Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World”), Huntington argued the thesis that future clashes (and war as a consequence) would no longer be between states but between ideologies and identity rituals, of which the religious substratum was a significant factor.
The aftermath of September 11, 2001, as we know, was as disastrous as its origin: the “War on Terrorism” declared by President Bush and the invasions and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent terrorist attacks here and there in the world.
Once again, we had and still have tens, hundreds of thousands of deaths, destruction in quantities impossible to accurately account for, exorbitant costs in terms of public budgets.
Symbolically, in this tenth year, we recorded the “intelligence episode” that determined the death of Bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s number 1, the supposed “lord of death.”
Osama Bin Laden also changed our lives and our way of living. It suffices to see the psychological consequences in terms of security perception. The security policies that followed have reduced individual and collective freedoms (sometimes significantly), with considerable costs and have shifted politics towards the conservative right… and authoritarianism. Ultimately, this is the legacy of 9/11 that will remain a “date” forever written in the book of our contemporary history.
Let’s not forget the two other planes involved in this same operation: one crashed into a wing of the Pentagon, and the other into a forest in Pennsylvania after a revolt by some of its passengers.
