This is what I think of the whole WTF Conspiracy Bunk.  Someone please tell me about a conspiracy theory that ever, ever turned out to be true!  Turns out, whoops, the Rosenbergs actually did it.  Yo, what about the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax!?  OJ was in the movie about it, maybe he was set up for the murder of his wife to keep him quiet!?

I’m not talking about CIA coups of democratically elected governments, US support of the Taliban and the Saudis, and this century’s "Great Game" being played in the Middle East.  All of that and more adds up to the US’s part in this on-going mess of which 9/11 was one part.  None of that is conspiracy.  All of that is history and news. 

When I say conspiracy, I mean conspiracy.  Conspiracy is not the same as understanding the unvarnished, complicated, disgusting truth of history. 

Foreign Policy magazine has a new report out in conjunction with the Center for American Progress about the War on Terror. Here’s what FP had to say:

Six months ago, we launched a groundbreaking new index that asked more than 100 of America’s top foreign-policy hands if the United States was winning the war on terror. Their answer? No. Now, surveyed again today, this bipartisan group sees a world that continues to grow more dangerous and a U.S. national security strategy that is failing on several fronts. In the second FOREIGN POLICY/Center for American Progress Terrorism Index, these experts warn that not only is another attack imminent, but that the United States may be distracted from the threats that matter most.

Link to the report.
Link to printer-friendly version.
Link to the report in PDF format.
Link to the survey results in PDF format.

Readers of this site are familiar with the recent formal split in the Canadian branch of the progressive Muslim movement, so to speak. All that went on around that very public falling out had various facets to it and we can--continue to--discuss the more relevant ones (to the rest of us) as we go along. But for now, it was interesting to see what the quality of the statements from each, and especially the new group, would be, as one of the most significant anniversaries on the calendar rolled around. I have to say, neither disappointed.

Here's the part of the Canadian Muslim Union's statement (also posted on this site) that really resonated with me; in places, it has an almost lyrical quality to it (though the full statement is kinda long):

It's 9/11. Nobody needs to say more. Everybody knows what that means. No, they are not referring to the anniversary of events in Chile that many decades ago, which might highlight some of the things what we all--and yes, all of us on this planet--did and put up with for decades and which got the planet to the place we're at. No, they are not referring to the anniversary of the death of Pakistan's founder; a person's whose politics and way of being a Muslim politician and leader might be relevant to today's problems. We all know know which September 11th we're talking about.

 

By El-Farouk Khaki and Hanadi Loubani for the Canadian Muslim Union

It has been five years since the day of infamy that we all refer to as 9/11. On that day, 19 men in the name of Islam brought death to more than 3000 New Yorkers and terror into our daily lives. The terror of 9/11 did not end there. More terror was unleashed in Bali, Sinai, Amman, Saudi Arabia, Madrid, Mumbai and London. On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Muslims stand as part of the global community to commemorate the lives lost and pray in recognition of the calamity, pain and suffering it has resulted in for those who lost their loved ones.

9/11 is no longer a mere date. It has entered the history books as the beginning of something new, a new era where “the full wrath of the United States” was unleashed in a "crusade" to "rid the world of evil-doers.” In this post era, 9/11 has become a catalyst and pretext for other forms of terror. Under the banner of a global war on terror, ill-conceived and ill-fated military campaigns, interventions, and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq have been justified. In the name of joining the global war on terror, states have mobilized dysfunctional and hypocritical definitions of human rights to justify the systematic sacrifice of countless human lives in Palestine, Lebanon, Darfur, Indonesia and Chechnya. In the fight against terrorism, domestic, administrative and legal regulations, embodied in the so-called “Bill C-36,” remodeled after the "USA Patriot Act," has been enacted to erode the very pillars of our Canadian democracy and liberty.

I'm not sure how I am supposed to mark today. All I have learned from history, let alone 9/11, is that the taste for blood revenge is never satisfied. Maybe today and every other day should be marked by continuing simple straightforward activism. We inwardly call our own souls to task for our shortcomings and outwardly correct the shortcomings in our Muslim and non-Muslim communities. To honor the dead and the living it takes all hands working from all directions on all matters that stir us.  So we carry on.

News of Willow's soon-to-be-released graphic novel reminded me of Finding East, an excellent short story by my fellow Bangladeshi and old classmate Javed. See if you can spot the comics references =)