There Will Always Be An England

Snapdragons

America needs to get over 9/11.

Now that I've said that, the lack of death threats in the comments section tells you that only a small number of people (who rarely comment) read this blog.

Twenty years after the only successful large-scale extra-national terrorist attack on US soil, America is sadder and more divided than ever, and large parts of the world are less stable, at least in part because of how America reacted to the attacks. 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan entrenched hatred of America and killed tens of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, not to mention all the US soldiers and contractors, the Afghan military and police, members of the Taliban, aid workers and journalists - more than 170,000 people died. Because they were financed with debt, the wars will cost America more than $6 trillion by 2050.

And, on May 2, 2011, more than ten years ago, US forces murdered Osama Bin Laden.

But the revenge killing, the money and the carnage have proven not to be enough. On every anniversary, America feels the wound just as freshly, because not only the people in the buildings and the planes died that day.

Let me explain what I mean.

On the 5th of June 1940, gunned up on methamphetamines and pushing forward in the largest tank assault in history, the Germans began their campaign against France. On June 14, Hitler stood in Paris, triumphant. 

About France's stunning defeat, Frederic Beigbeder said in 2015, "Perhaps France died in 1940: their defeat against the Germans came after only eleven days, the country has never recovered from that humiliation."

Nations are just ideas. They are fragile. 

The tragic human deaths on 9/11 are not the point. Way more Americans have died lots of other violent and regrettable ways – killed by cars, guns, spouses, factory emissions. And America’s wars have killed orders of magnitude more people.

But there’s no satisfaction for the loss of the idea that once was America.

The only way over the humiliation is to move on. When nations remember the world wars, they don't use the moment to rekindle fury against the enemy. So honour the fallen, and build a better world. Stop trying to burn it down.

Thanks for reading.

Karen