[En toe verander die wêreld oornag. Hierdie e-pos is geskryf amper twee weke na die gebeurtenis. Dit was in respons tot 'n vraag na my mening, van 'n Amerikaanse vrou wat ek in Korea bevriend het.]

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“We sit around the same campfire, it seems, when it comes to the current situation. Like most people, I was deeply upset by the loss of human lives. Upsetting as well is the fact that from the beginning the US government refused to acknowledge that this was not exactly out of the blue. Then again, what government would have the courage to stand up and acknowledge that their foreign policy might have caused resentment that might have led to attacks like these?

It is upsetting that human lives can be sacrificed like this, and it is upsetting how the US government distorts and manipulates the truth. By calling these terrorists ‘evil’ and ‘madmen’ they are essentially leading the US population further and further into their bleak ignorance, entrenching their belief that these attacks are a ‘mystery’ perpetrated by ‘evil madmen’ who ‘just hate us because we are American’.

I read that one man in New York, probably after hearing some complex theory about the possible reasons, said ‘what could some political thing have to do with bombing office workers going to work?’ And a young boy interviewed at some school said ‘I don’t get it’.

That is what the US government wants to hear, because a lack of understanding of the complex background would lead to unflinching and uncritical support of whatever the US government does next, in order to maintain the very policies that has caused the resentment and hate that had led to these attacks in the first place.

This level of ignorance would not be unprecedented. Thousands of American men in the sixties went to die and cause death and suffering in a country they could not even find on a map back home. They did it because their government explained in a simple dichotomy of good and evil that ‘to die in Vietnam is to die for your country’. It took thousands of unnecessary deaths, and thousands of maimed soldiers before some started asking questions. And because these soldiers then rejected the government’s simple explanation for waging war, they were branded as traitors by the very government that send them to their deaths in the first place.

America is in a similar position now, except for the fact that this situation developed after death and terror on their own soil. This time one could almost understand a degree of irrational need to bomb ‘anyone, as long as we bomb someone’.

But at some point the US government would have to start acting more responsibly. They would have to accept that being the only superpower left does not mean that they can cause suffering, or support those who cause suffering, anywhere they want, just because those people cannot retaliate like another superpower with intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads.

Terrorism should be eradicated, more than anything else to avoid the suffering and death of innocent people. But I also believe that terrorism should NOT be treated as the root cause of a bad situation, as the US government tries to explain it to the world and to the US public, but as a symptom of much more complex problems. One for which the US government should accept their part of the blame.

That, in short, is my opinion.”

~ Uit ‘n brief aan S. (24 September 2001)

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[Addisionele nota: Vir lank het ek "9/11" geassosieer met die gesig van George W. Bush. Die dag het neergekom op politiek, en regverdiging vir Amerikaanse arrogansie. Dit was eers toe ek na die Springsteen-album, The Rising geluister het, wat die menslike dimensie van verlies en hartseer vir my die politiek oorskadu het.]