On September 11^th, 2001, a close friend of mine, lived less than ten miles from the World Trade Center, and often went near the World Trade Center towers. I worried a lot about him on that day, and I remember saying on that day, that I wanted something to be done so that no attack like this could ever occur again. But even then, I did not want things done that would cause greater harm than this attack had caused. And that is exactly what we have done in response to this attack. And what we have done has caused much greater harm than this attack caused. It’s not even close.

Before this day, the only place in which I had ever heard someone seriously consider anything very similar to the destruction that took place on this day, was in a Tom Clancy novel, and I did not believe that any person would actually do something like what was done on that day. Clancy imagined a very similar situation at the end of his novel “Debt of Honor”. Still the events of that day did not change my fundamental outlook on our world, or change my fundamental values, because when I had adopted those values, I knew that people could do things like this, (and could also do things much worse than this), and have often done things much worse than this. And even though I had not expected anyone to do anything like what was done on that day, (and had thought of such things as hype manufactured to sell novels), as far as my values and beliefs are concerned, I was prepared for the possibility that this might happen. I had decided long ago that we should always treat other people well, even if doing so might allow people to do things like this, because of the many benefits that treating people well brings. In this instance, treating people more harshly, might have led to the people who did this, being caught before they did this, but would also have led to an atmosphere that would have inhibited openness and good will to such a degree that it would have led to so great a decrease in good and generous ideas, and to a so great a decrease in the developments that such ideas lead to, that it would have done us greater harm than the attacks of September 11^th, 2001, would have done if they had been 1,000 times as harmful as they were. (Unless we had close family members killed by these attacks. And even some people who had close family members killed by these attacks, have been hurt more by their reaction to these attacks, than by these attacks). The rest of us, will be able to do less to help these people, though, if we hurt ourselves. And since this attack occurred, the atmosphere of openness and good will that previously existed in our world, has been destroyed by attempts to prevent events like those of September 11^th, 2001, from occurring again. By destroying this atmosphere of openness and good will, we also do more to increase the likelihood of future attacks, than we could do in any other way, because this atmosphere of openness and good will, does more than anything else we can do to prevent attacks, by decreasing the desire other people will have to attack us. This destruction of openness and good will, is one example of how the reaction to this attack, has caused us all much more harm than this attack caused. The atmosphere of openness and good will, that existed before this attack occurred, produced an immeasurable amount of good, and weighing this good against the harm this attack did, leads me to find these things to be not even close in their value or in their impact.

I said at the time of this attack, that its greatest potential to do harm, lay in the harm that would be done if it provoked an unwise reaction. More specifically, I said that if this attack allowed Bin Laden to draw the United States into the war he was trying to draw us into, then it would truly have done great harm. And sadly it looks as if we are about to let him do this. Some people would say that we have already let him do this, but the war we have fought in Iraq, is only a minor conflict, compared to the civil war that will occur in Pakistan, if we send the U.S. military into that nation. A war of that magnitude is the war that Bin Laden truly meant to provoke. And it looks as if we will be led into that war by our next president, (a person who may be someone whom I truly respect, though if this occurs I will have to admit that this person will have done us much more harm than Bush has done us.). If this happens, Bush will become a little remembered footnote, who will be remembered as the president who did us more harm than most presidents before him did, but who came just before a president who did us so much harm that what Bush did to us seemed like an inconsequential blow in comparison. Bush would probably not have become a president who has done us more harm than most presidents before him did, if not for his bad reaction to the events of September 11^th, 2001. To show that I truly believe this, I will admit that in 2000, I voted for Bush, and that when I did this, I saw a lot of positives in him. And it looks as if reacting badly to the events of September 11^th, 2001, may lead our next president to do us even more harm.

The wisest reaction to the events of September 11^th, 2001, would have been to remember that everything we did that allowed these events to occur, also produced benefits that were much greater than the harm these events caused, and not to have changed our actions at all in response to this attack. But this level of wisdom was probably too much to hope for. And I never did hope for this much wisdom. I always thought that this attack would lead us to send our military into Afghanistan. I have just hoped many times since that day, that our bad reaction would end there. We can still return to our senses, before we wholly destroy ourselves. Bin Laden wanted to destroy the power of the United States, and the war we are now being drawn into may do just that. At least it would do us great harm. Pakistan is a very populous nation, and in addition to people from Pakistan, many other people would also become involved in the civil war we would spark, if the U.S. military entered Pakistan. Our overreaction is giving Bin Laden the chance to succeed in the fight He wants to have with us. Will history show that the United States was dragged to its destruction by its reaction to September 11^th, 2001?, or will history show that the United States avoided the worst parts of this reaction, and returned to the atmosphere of openness and daring, that had always been it’s most valuable possession?

If the United States is dragged to it’s destruction by this, then this will show that we the people of the United States, never had very much wisdom to begin with. This is the type of situation that Jesus tells us of when He says, ““Whoever has, more will be given to him; and whoever has not, even what he seems to have, will be taken away from him.” (Lk 8:18, Lk 19:26, Mt 13:12 & Mt 25:29). Before this attack, it seemed to many people that we had some wisdom, but if we act unwisely now, we will show that we never actually had what we seemed to have.

Of course we also did many unwise things to provoke the attack of September 11^th, 2001, but those mistakes are in the past now, and though it is important that we learn from those mistakes, we can no longer avoid making them. Our bad reaction to this attack is still occurring, though, and we can still avoid the parts of this reaction that would do us the most harm.

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Go to http://howwecanheal.blogspot.com to read an essay that you will find even more helpful, than this one.

George Pelly-Bosela

gpelly.bosela@gmail.com