I would like to hereby demand an end to the use of "9/11" as a metaphor. It is overused and confusing, and it is bleeding the meaning out of the American dies horribilis.
The final straw for me was the recent terrorist attacks in Russia. First came the twin plane bombings on August 24. This event was immediately branded as "Russia's 9/11." Then came the Labor Day weekend horrors in Beslan. So, what do the media call this event? "Russia's 9/11." So... which one is it? Are the plane bombings now "Russia's USS Cole?" Or are they the "Russia's First WTC Bombing?" And what about the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999? "Russia's Oklahoma City?" And away we go down the reducto ad absurdum logic stream.
I know it's a nice shorthand for writers, but it's a moving target. What happens if Al-Queda blows up a Moscow subway stop tomorrow? Does it become "Russia's 9/11" if the bombing kills more people than the atrocity in Beslan? Or is it bigger because it's in Moscow -- implying that a life lost in the city is worth more than a life lost in Russian flyover country? You're unwittingly quantifying life if you do. All the while, you demean not only the victims of the attack but of all attacks. It's as if there's a high score each terrorist has to shoot for in order to become a country's "9/11." And it doesn't stop with terror. An F5 tornado destroys a major Midwestern city and causes massive disruption... now it's "Kansas City's 9/11." A distraught man walks into a small-town diner and shoots up the place... now it's "Drumright's 9/11." An oil spill wipes out marine life on the West Coast... now it's "Puget Sound's 9/11." And, now, it's a meaningless cliche that minimizes the horror for the sake of expediency.
On September 11, 2001, over 3000 people died in a three hour span due to cowardly and vicious actions by pseudo-religious extremists. Two of the tallest buildings in the world were left a pile of rubble before the West Coast had their first cup of morning coffee. The Pentagon, symbol of the American military-industrial complex, was the scene of physical and human destruction. In rural Pennsylvannia, a crater was all that was left of a fourth plane that was brought down when the passengers got wind of the plan and fought back.
Now look at that above paragraph. Do you see anything about "school," "bombs," "hundreds of dead children," or "Chechnya?" For that matter, do you see anything about "bombs" blowing planes out of the sky? No. You don't. This is because the Beslan atrocity was a completely different event from the twin Russian plane bombings, which was a completely different event from the Madrid train bombings and the Bali nightclub bombing and the African embassy bombings. Yes, they are all cowardly acts of terror, but they are not 9/11, and comparing attacks like these to 9/11 is a callous shorthand that quantifies human life.
Terrorists quantify life. Decent, religious, ethical humans qualify life. Stop trying to compare, because there is no comparison.
Comments
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Way to over analyze a sound byte analogy. I suspect your next post will be to rant on the degrading use of the letter W. The terrorists are not cowardly. Vicious, maybe, compared to the weapons we use though? Not really. How would you go to war with the USA? I see, sneaking up and bombing a barracks, like in Saudi Arabia, isn't cowardly? Or is it? Is sending a cruise missile strike cowardly? I see a logic chain here... cowardly seems to be killing someone without getting killed yourself or giving advanced warning. Sounds like a bunch of 18th century, stand in a line like men and fire at each other silliness. Kind of an outdated concept. Our nation was founded by terrorism... remember? So, instead of being cowardly the "terrorists" should stand up and march around and wait for F15s? I seem to remember Iraq doing this and still being labeled cowards. It takes two people to argue - this simple 2nd grade logic can be applied to terrorism/war as well. If we don't like it we should loose the drama-queen rhetoric and stop playing games with groups that will fight back. I think we need a rant on the misuse of the word terrorism. Until everyone has similar armies conventional warfare is dead.
Posted by: ben | September 9, 2004 06:52 AM
