12b. 9/11

Reuters, 2019

Reuters, 2019

Many of you were perhaps not yet born, or were very young, when 9/11 happened. These numbers have become a recognizable symbol for violent terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. On this day, two jet airliners deliberately flew into the World Trade Center skyscrapers in Manhattan, New York City. Another airplane flew into the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. A fourth airplane was also destined for Washington, but crashed in Pennsylvania, after the hijackers were overtaken. Close to 3,000 people died and another 25,000 were injured on the day of the attack. These attacks by the group al-Qaeda were followed by a global ‘war on terror’ led by the United States, with support from its allies including Canada.

While the number of people killed was relatively small – compare the number of civilian deaths in the war in Syria, estimated at 400,000 since 2011 – the dramatic, sudden, and horrifying nature of the 9/11 attacks brought the world to a standstill. Flights everywhere around the world were halted. I recall that some classes at the University of Waterloo were cancelled, as students and instructors gathered around televisions and computer monitors to watch the news unfold. 

People in the west were shocked to realize their vulnerability in the face of terrorist attacks. The American government was swift to adopt a stance of retribution and launched military campaigns to destroy what it described as terrorist groups within a fundamentalist arm of Islam. These wars took place mainly in Afghanistan and Iraq and lasted close to 15 years (some would say the wars are not over).

There was a great deal of coverage of both the victories – fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq – and atrocities – American abuse of Iraqi prisoners – in these wars. But there was minimal attention to the peace movement responses to either the 9/11 attacks or the wars that followed. However, there was a significant movement which called for peace and reconciliation between the west and its perceived enemies.

September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

Not long after the terrorist attacks on September 11, a group of family members of individuals who died that day, gathered to reflect on their government’s militaristic response. The United States had begun to bomb Afghanistan and these families felt that “their loved ones’ deaths were being used to stoke nationalism, support wars and normalize abusive behavior.”¹ They wanted the government and its citizens to find peaceful, restorative solutions to the conflict. They organized a “Walk for Healing and Peace” from Washington, DC, to New York City just a few months after September 11. In January 2002, four members of this group travelled to Afghanistan to meet with families affected by the U.S. bombing there. One of the delegates was Medea Benjamin who went on to co-found CODEPINK, which you learned about in an earlier module. A year later, they went to Iraq. One of the group’s particular concerns was that taking civilian lives in Afghanistan and Iraq was not a reconciling response to the loss of American civilian lives on 9/11 and would only encourage the growth of terrorist groups.

In February 2002, the organization September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was born as families committed to turning “our grief into action for peace.”² The group took their inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement, “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows,” which has become the organization’s tagline. They spoke out against the military solution for defeating terrorism, and against the American treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. Peaceful Tomorrows continues to advocate for the closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison, where the U.S. detains without trial (and is accused of torturing) individuals suspected of terrorism.

One of the founders of Peaceful Tomorrows, Colleen Kelly, lost her brother in the World Trade Center attack. Watch this short interview with her as she prepares to travel to Iraq in 2003:

Think about how her message connects to the Black Eyed Peas song from the beginning of this module.

Many people in the west reacted strongly against any peaceful overtures to countries (Afghanistan and Iraq in particular) that were viewed as perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. And Peaceful Tomorrows was the target of critique and derision.

Peaceful Tomorrows continues to exist nearly two decades after 9/11, engaging in education and advocacy that calls for peaceful approaches in international relations.

Mass Protest against the War in Iraq

At about the same time as a Peaceful Tomorrows delegation was visiting Iraq, one of the largest peace protests in modern history took place all over the world. On February 15, 2003, estimates say that up to 10 million people in 800 cities organized mass anti-war gatherings to speak out against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The city of Rome saw 3 million gather in protest, listed in 2004 by the Guinness Book of World Records, as the largest anti-war rally in history. In Canada, 70 cities participated, with Montreal bringing out 100,000 people and Toronto 80,000. It is rare to see that many people at a peace protest in this country!

While February 15 was a high point, significant mass demonstrations against the war occurred over many months from late 2002 through 2003. The protest was reminiscent of some of the large marches and demonstrations against the American war in Vietnam four decades earlier. To take you back to Module 3 of the course, remember that it was in February 2003 when the play Lysistrata – the Greek sex-strike play – was performed around the world. 

People were increasingly indignant over the number of civilian deaths, misinformation about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the inadequacy of a war-based approach to counter the terrorist threat, the human rights violations committed by the American military, and the Islamophobia that was growing. As well, there was growing acceptance that the invasion of Iraq was based on misinformation and even mistruth. Remember from Module 5 that some American war resisters came to Canada during these years, believing that the war was immoral and illegal.

The kind of global organizing and networking needed to get that many people out on the same day would probably not have been possible without the internet. The speed of information travel and use of social media allowed millions of people to organize in a short amount of time. In 2015, a documentary about the protest, called We Are Many premiered. Watch the trailer:

These two peace movements represent different approaches, but equally powerful tactics, to respond to the American war on terrorism. On the one hand, Peaceful Tomorrows is an organizational peace movement, with the structures that go with that – mission and goals, a steering committee, a membership, and so on. Their main tactic is education and advocacy. The mass protest of 2003 had no particular beginning or end, or identifiable structure or leadership. It was a gathering, a demonstration, “an assembly of protest or support,” which is No. 47 on Gene Sharp’s list of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action (Modules 1 and 4).

While neither of these movements immediately or directly stopped military intervention in Afghanistan or Iraq (or other nations accused by the west of harboring terrorists), they did provide important counter-voices to the assumption that violent, military action is the only way to end terrorism or inter-state conflict. I think these movements are good examples of the kind of diverse methods and approaches that people adopt to offer peaceful responses to conflict situations.