Seven Years Later, World Ponders Meaning of 9/11

It is the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Commemorations remembered the victims in New York and Washington; presidential candidates agreed to resist partisanship to show their national solidarity; and many Americans took stock of what they were doing that day and what the day means to them. At the same time, fewer Americans fear a terrorist attack than they have in recent years, and most do not think terrorism is as important a voting issue this fall as the economy or the housing crisis. Still, the attacks of that day have become a national, indeed, a global symbol potent enough to be invoked merely by mentioning the day.

What story lies within the symbol has not yet been decided. Some saw in it a declaration of war, some see it as prompting a war, or several. For some, 9/11 prompted a recognition that much of the world is unfree, for others, it became a symbol of hard-won liberties reduced. There are Americans who saw in the tower's collapse a sign that the United States must venture into the world beyond, and for others, it was proof that it should not.

Here are some ways around the web that people are making sense of the day:

Ben Feller , AP's White House correspondent, writes of how large September 11 looms in the world of President Bush

At times, Bush seems almost to lament how little Sept. 11 is on the public's mind.

He is still responsible for stopping another attack. And his reminders are, in fact, daily.

Bush begins his workday listening to intelligence experts describe fresh threats to the country. The public, of course, never hears or sees those confidential briefings. But the leaders of the intelligence community have been blunt in public that the terror threat remains real. Their message to Congress and the country: Don't forget Sept. 11

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Halfway around the world, Syria's foreign Minister, Walid Al-Moualem also sees a terrorist threat, but in remarks made today, blamed the United States for deciding to fight terrorism with force:

"As we said to President Bush shortly after the tragic events on September 11, the fight against terrorism must begin at the roots, at the cause of terrorism," al-Moualem told a news conference in Rome, where he was meeting Italy's foreign minister.

"The last thing we should use if that fails is the use of force, as a last resort. Unfortunately they have made the use of force the beginning and the end of the fight against terrorism and thus terrorism is much more widespread today than before."

A longtime American journalist in Cairo, Scott MacLeod says, in contrast, that neither the attack nor the subsequent "war on terror" made much of a difference in the scope of terrorism:

After 9/11, Bush identified Bin Laden as a leader of Islamic terrorists and set out to get him "dead or alive" and eradicate radical Islam. Bin Laden's sensational attacks and Bush's hyper response suggested to some that Islamic extremism had morphed into a threat of epic proportions...Broadly speaking, the threat did not live up to those early impressions. Al-Qaeda and its imitators did manage to stage further albeit much smaller attacks in the next seven years. But it's hardly been a blitz.... Nor has al-Qaeda transformed itself into anything approaching a mass political movement that could take over governments, win elections, field armies, collect the trash. The U.S., the Israelis and Arab governments had in fact been battling terrorism of all kinds for years before 9/11. Throughout the Middle East, those police and intelligence operations are pretty much still going on the way they were before, whatever they care to label it nowadays.

Rick Moran, blogging for Rightwing Nuthouse says the United States is much the same country it also on September 10, except for a more toxic divisivenes in American politics:

If there is one thing that has changed since 9/11 is that the chasm between the two sides has gotten wider and the infection has spread to the point where nothing is untouched. The hope that Obama could bridge the gap – or anyone for that matter – was never realistic. America is what it is today and blaming one side or the other for the mess our politics has become is futile.

The fear I have is that if 9/11 can’t bring us together, what will? A nuclear terrorist attack? Assassinations? War with a nuclear Iran?

We are a weaker nation because we are so divided. To my mind, it’s only a matter of time before someone takes advantage of that fact and makes us pay a price we may be unwilling to bear.

Paul Campos, blogging for Lawyers, Guns and Money calls the symbolic effect of 9/11, for all but the families of the victims, a cult:

The Cult of 9/11 isn’t about real risk, but rather about creating and maintaining a pervasive cultural atmosphere of dread. It’s a kind of national horror film – one which goes on and on, even as the events of that terrible day fade in both memory and emotional impact.

_{Photo by Jim Watson, U.S. Navy; drawing by student at Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School.}