Tuesday’s attacks demonstrate how much we need to grow up as a nation - how important politics can be even if we prefer not to pay attention. It’s time to have a serious debate about the nation’s priorities and to make tough decisions involving difficult trade-offs
WE ALL KNEW this was possible. All modern cities are vulnerable to terrorism;
indeed to chemical and biological attacks that can do as much or more damage
than Tuesday’s achieved. The politicians and pundits who conducted their
dreamworld debate about missile defense and space weaponry against as-yet imaginary
opponents showed precious little interest in these more arcane threats that
any number of nations and terrorist groups already possessed. Now we are paying
the price for the unreality of our political debate.
Our vulnerability to low-tech earth-based threats was no secret. But it was
not sexy and hence, $70 billion has been wasted fighting a threat that is so
far nowhere to be seen, while this one was starved for both funds and attention.
A CHANGED WORLD
Now we have to figure out how to react to a changed world - a world where Americans
do not have the luxury of feeling invulnerable any more. What, if any, civil
liberties are we willing to relinquish in order to feel more secure? (Once citizens
relinquish a given right, be it to privacy, freedom of speech, or freedom of
movement, it is generally impossible to retrieve it later.)
What kind of inconveniences are we willing to experience? How many metal detectors
are we willing to walk through? How many hours do we want to spend waiting on
line to get on planes, or even to drive through tunnels?
THE PRICE OF UNILATERALISM
Unless, as seems almost unimaginable, this terrorist attack is another home-grown
threat like that carried out in Oklahoma City, then it is safe to conclude that
whoever did carry it out, did so because they wanted the nation to pay a price
for its foreign policy. After all, nobody targets Switzerland for terrorist
attacks. Perhaps this is also a debate we should be having. Just what price
is the United States willing to pay for its current level of world involvement
as an independent actor, outside the purview of the United Nations? Many will
say that even to raise this issue is to give in to terrorists. But an open and
democratically conducted debate and discussion can be considered appeasement.
I think it our duty as citizens.
Everything about American politics and media needs to come down to earth. The
cheap and easy media coverage of supposed sexual scandals allowed us to ignore
and obscure the really important issues.
Tuesday’s attacks demonstrate how much we need to grow up as a nation -
how important politics can be even if we prefer not to pay attention. It’s
time to have a serious debate about the nation’s priorities and to make
tough decisions involving difficult trade-offs. There is no way to wish away
our many vulnerabilities as a society. But we can address them sensibly and
democratically, if only we face up to the fact that we never had any innocence
to lose. We merely acted as if we did.
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Eric Alterman is an author and columnist for The Nation. He is a regular contributor
to MSNBC.com.