While we debate, with the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, what to do about the Iraq war, we may be tempted to forget that Iraq had nothing to do with the events of six years ago today.
The timing of the testimony of the general and the ambassador is no coincidence, as Barack Obama pointed out today on Capitol Hill. “I think we should not have had this discussion on 9/11 or 9/10 or 9/12,” said Obama. “It perpetuates this notion that the original attacks had something to do with going into Iraq.” The timing of these hearings is cynical, but not a surprise when dealing with the Bush administration, for which no blow is too low.
The president was mistaken to go to war against Iraq and worse yet, bungled our nation’s response to the atrocities of September 11. But we can make things right again. We should follow the advice of Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz in his essay, “After September 11: Thoughts on What Can Be Done,” posted one week after the attacks. Ferencz advocated bringing Osama Bin Laden and his co-conspirators to trial in an ad hoc international criminal tribunal like those used for the ex-Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.
Following this course of action, if we can catch Bin Laden or convince him to hand himself over – he might fancy himself a martyr and relish the stage – would be to redeem September 11 in our memories. Instead of being a day solely of sadness, a sadness we will always have, we will remember it as an event finally brought some closure by the conviction of at least a few of the perpetrators in a fair court of law on charges of crimes against humanity. The entire world will at that point have to recognize that the events of September 11 were a crime, not a political statement, and that Americans sought justice and were vindicated.
I iterate this argument more completely, I hope, in my recent post to The Gage Page.
I hope there are others out there who are tired of these wars and want to return, or perhaps finally work our way to, a rule of law, to a dignified position as an enlightened, responsible member of the family of nations. Doing so will prove to be a better way to win the war.
