I was almost seven on 9/11. I was sitting in keyboarding class when my teachers turned on the TV. I don't remember the planes hitting the Twin Towers. I remember one crashing into the Pentagon. My two sisters, my younger brother, and I were all wearing matching "Someone in the Pentagon Loves Me" T-Shirts. One of my uncles had given them to us recently. I don't remember when or why he gave them to us or why we had decided to wear them that day. But I remember seeing the smoke from the Pentagon and sobbing. My dad visited all of us in school to give us the good news that our uncle was still alive; he hadn't made it into work for some mundane, forgotten reason. He was alive - but so many others had died.
I remember learning about Al Qaeda, struggling to pronounce Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. A few years later, when it became clear that the War on Terror was not about to end, my father joined the military and was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan. Again, he survived, but I have always been conscious of those who did not.
Because these events so nearly took away people close to me, I have always been reluctant to criticize the War on Terror. I was uncomfortable with the existence of Guantanamo Bay and believed that terrorist suspects ought to be given constitutional/legal rights, but when I tried to express these feelings as a child (or teenager), I was quickly rebuffed and my family/friends asked me how I could say such things when those people were the cause of so much death and tragedy. I never could find a response.
I remember learning about Al Qaeda, struggling to pronounce Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. A few years later, when it became clear that the War on Terror was not about to end, my father joined the military and was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan. Again, he survived, but I have always been conscious of those who did not.
Because these events so nearly took away people close to me, I have always been reluctant to criticize the War on Terror. I was uncomfortable with the existence of Guantanamo Bay and believed that terrorist suspects ought to be given constitutional/legal rights, but when I tried to express these feelings as a child (or teenager), I was quickly rebuffed and my family/friends asked me how I could say such things when those people were the cause of so much death and tragedy. I never could find a response.
My misgivings have continued to bother me at times, and the more I read about the Reign of Terror, the more these doubts popped up. Having been silenced for so long, I had difficulty understanding why reading about the Terror helped them form.
Then I read Dan Edelstein's The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution. In the conclusion, he discusses the similarities between the Reign of Terror and the War on Terror. Both utilize the language of "enemies of humanity," which justifies stripping the accused of any constitutional/legal rights merely on the basis of the accusation. Furthermore, with the existence of Guantanamo Bay, the US set up a separate court system to deal with the accused; Edelstein compares these to the revolutionary tribunals.
While this is certainly disturbing, I am also worried by some of the differences. While the revolutionary tribunals and guillotine executions were public, the US tends to deal with terrorist suspects in secret. While the National Convention had legally and publicly suspended the constitution, the US Constitution is not suspended; it is merely being ignored and violated.
Therefore, despite the similarities, it somehow has become harder to protest against because of these differences.
Then I read Dan Edelstein's The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution. In the conclusion, he discusses the similarities between the Reign of Terror and the War on Terror. Both utilize the language of "enemies of humanity," which justifies stripping the accused of any constitutional/legal rights merely on the basis of the accusation. Furthermore, with the existence of Guantanamo Bay, the US set up a separate court system to deal with the accused; Edelstein compares these to the revolutionary tribunals.
While this is certainly disturbing, I am also worried by some of the differences. While the revolutionary tribunals and guillotine executions were public, the US tends to deal with terrorist suspects in secret. While the National Convention had legally and publicly suspended the constitution, the US Constitution is not suspended; it is merely being ignored and violated.
Therefore, despite the similarities, it somehow has become harder to protest against because of these differences.