Yesterday, in my classes, I had students write an essay about September 11th: e.g. where they were when the planes hit the towers, what their reactions were to seeing this, and how it changed their lives, and how they view the incident in the light of the 5th anniversary of 9/11. It was really enlightening to see how differently people reacted and still react to this attack. One of my students, from another country that has had its share of terror and strife, sympathized deeply with the victims and their families, but pointed out that America has to move on, put this incident behind it because so many other countries have experienced similar tragedies, albeit not in such a spectacular "action film" sort of manner. Think of Rwanda, the Sudan, Chechnya, the Balkans--these bloody conflicts have dotted the map in just the last 15 years, and over 2 million people have died as the result. We don't hear much about them.

Many Americans had thought they were immune--that attacks on civilians just happened "on TV," in countries that most younger people never heard of, let alone knew their history and what events spurred on the conflicts. The majority of citizens in the U.S. had never heard of Osama bin Laden, even though his henchmen had bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, and the people in Tanzania and Kenya knew him well as al Qaida bombed the American embassies there and killed hundreds of people, and wounded thousands in 1998. Bin Laden had even given an interview with correspondent Peter Bergen in 1998 stating he was determined to implement attacks on Americans in order, in his view, "to wake them up" and force American troops to leave Saudi Arabia, where they had been stationed since the Gulf War, and bring some resolution to the plight of the Palestinian people, which he envisioned as eliminating Israel (although there is debate on this matter--some have reported that he wants Israel to retreat to the 1967 borders). Shortly after the embassy attacks, he initiated an attack that blew up the U.S. Cole, docked in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. We cannot say we were not warned.

Our popularity, as a country, as sunk so low internationally that only 2% of the world's polled citizens (a Pew poll) reported that they felt "postively about the United States." Two percent!!!! So we live treading on egg shells, waiting for the next attack. But the world is not as sympathetic now; as one European paper noted, "America squandered its goodwill after 9/11 by invading Iraq." We now know that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks, and that Saddam was a target of bin Laden too (for reasons too numerous and cumbersome to get into here). A European friend of mine, who has experienced sectarian violence firsthand told me that "the 9/11 attacks were like America getting slapped--we felt that the slap was too hard and too devastating, but it was about time that America experienced what the rest of the world has had to endure."

So what do we do? Do we continue an endless "war on terror," or do we look at the reasons behind terrorism? What attracts people to movements like al Qaida? Poverty? A sense of inequity? A sense of being bullied by countries and forces one has no control over? Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies flying planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but we must understand this was not an irrational act: it was a statement. And considering how unpopular we are with the rest of the world, we probably should pay some attention to what's behind all this aminosity (and please don't say it's because "they hate our freedom": it's a cop out, and doesn't address the more pressing and complex issues).

Where do we go from here? I'd love some feedback from my international friends.