9/11/07

It's 9/11 - that now infamous date in our nation’s history.

Last night I was at Vivace on Capitol Hill and a group of about 25 folks were meeting on the subject. They were apparently affiliated with the "9/11 "Truth Movement" and, from snippets I could overhear, were discussing the various theories that have been circulating lately. Earlier that day, I’d seen large black and white posters around Broadway that read, "9/11 was an inside job!".

A front page article in this week’s The Stranger by Paul Constant follows a group of Seattle "Truthers" and their theories on what really happened that day. It wasn't entirely favorable; a bit dismissive toward the end, I thought. It focused less on the substance of the theories (many of which are not widely known, but are quite compelling) and more on the movement and its development over the past several years from near-blasphemy shortly after the attacks, to fringe status, to, as one recent poll has it, supported in some form by 36% of the American public. That figure, particularly, I thought very significant. The idea must not be so fanciful as it once seemed, if so many believe it.

Americans are known to be suckers for conspiracy theories - some say it is part of our superstitious, religious, culture. But there is real substance behind the view that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by our own government (or, perhaps, a secret, high-level cabal of sorts within our own government). The realization that the administration lied about the justification for the Iraq war has served to reinforce this view.

Of course, the movement is almost entirely internet-driven, as mainstream media have largely ignored the notion. But even this is changing of late. One might trace it to the incredible spread of the now-infamous homemade internet film Loose Change, produced by two upstate New Yorkers in their 20s.

We may never know the truth, but the clarifying lens of history will put the 9/11 era in sharper focus in the years to come. Perhaps one day I will be telling my grandchildren that, for a time, Americans once believed that we were really attacked that day. This would not be the first time the U.S. has used a false pretext for starting a war: the Gulf of Tonkin incident, for example; some say the government even had prior knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks because we wanted an in into that war, and needed an excuse.

I’m guessing that the period begun on September 11, 2001 will be seen as the beginning of a very important period in our history; one that led us on a very definite trajectory apart from what might have been. Where, it is hard to say, it is still too early.