September 11, 2007
Looking Back Six Years Posted by Joshua Zeitz at 03:45 PM EST As Fred Schwarz notes in today’s lead article, six years ago American Heritage produced a special issue devoted to considering the September 11 attacks in historical perspective. I wrote a piece for the magazine arguing that just as wars have sometimes given American policymakers license to restrict and violate constitutional liberties—prominent examples of this tendency include the draconian repression of German immigrants and left-wing unionists during and immediately after World War I, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II—they have also produced what the historian Bernard Bailyn termed a “contagion of liberty.” Bailyn was writing specifically about the American War of Independence, when Americans who used slavery as a metaphor to describe their relationship with Britain came to oppose chattel slavery as inconsistent with revolutionary ideals. I also pointed to the Civil War, which evolved from a fight for the sanctity of the Union to a liberation struggle. Writing in the days after 9/11, I suggested that “as in the 1770s, the 1860s, and the 1940s, today the exigencies of war—in whatever shape it ultimately assumes—afford Americans an opportunity in the form of a challenge. To keep the nation unified and to convince the world that its cause carries merit, the United States will have to articulate its purpose. As indeed the President began to do very soon after the attack, when, before a group of American Muslim leaders, he said, ‘America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens. . . . And they need to be treated with respect. . . . Those who feel . . . they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America. . . .’ We will have to make very clear exactly why American democracy is superior to dictatorship and theocracy, and this in turn will force us to examine our most deeply cherished institutions and beliefs. In the past, this exercise, although brought on by painful and urgent circumstances, has ended by giving us a more honest application of our founding ideals.” In my defense, I wrote that the war against terrorism presented an opportunity to strengthen the application of democracy in America. I didn’t say it would have this effect, though at the time, I was hopeful. Looking back after six years, this has sadly not been the case. The Patriot Act, which, among other things, allowed the government to investigate citizens’ library borrowing habits, and the administration’s decision to monitor citizens’ phone calls without first securing court warrants, are not shining examples of the “contagion of liberty.” Neither is the military prison at Guantanamo Bay likely to give us a “new birth of freedom,” let alone added security. As for Abu Ghraib, what is there to say, other than to note that we did not live up to our stated ideals? Of course, one shouldn’t overstate the case. The administration’s bizarre claims of executive privilege and its effective abrogation of international treaties are bad, but nowhere near as egregious as the internment of tens of thousands of citizens. Still, looking back on my article, I’m saddened by the opportunities that we, as a country, have lost over the past several years.
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