Originally published on the CGS blog on September 9, 2011.
To some ten years may not be a long time, but for me it marks almost half of my life. In remembering the tenth anniversary of September of 11th I am compelled to think about how my own worldview has changed during that time. As a 7th grader in a pre- September 11th World, I assumed that everyone had the same innocent moral codes, values, and drive for peace and prosperity that I did. Ten years later, as a young adult in a nation that has been at war for the last decade, I have realized that this is not necessarily the case. My generation, those who have experienced this same development into adulthood in the past ten years, don’t know what it would be like to live in a world without the “War on Terror.” As a result, many seem to think that peace is a thing of the past, a hopelessly idealist notion that cannot be achieved. Greg Jaffe writes in The Washington Post that this change can be seen socially, such as in popular video games where conflicts are never resolved, as well as politically. “Peace,” he writes, “has become something of a dirty word in Washington foreign-policy circles.”
As the tenth anniversary of September 11th approaches I find the stigma the word peace now carries even more unsettling. Peace is not any easy solution. It has always been the more difficult, more costly, and more time consuming alternative. But it should never be abandoned. It should be the driving force, no matter how far away the end result may be, that leads military, development, and diplomacy efforts. Americans for Informed Democracy has not forgotten the importance of having a vision, and with their Be2021 Campaign they are encouraging people to unite and speak out for what they want to see in the next ten years rather than focusing on the destruction of the last ten. Ten years ago tragic events showed the monstrosities that can occur in the world, but people were also united. Even as a member of the generation of global connectedness (from Facebook to study abroad programs), the months following September 11th were some of the most globally interconnected times that I remember in my life.
It is that spirit of camaraderie that I want to remember today as this country commemorates September 11th. We will never forget the lives lost and destruction done both psychologically and physically. Those images and memories will be with us forever. But the spirit of global connectivity is much easier to forget and therefore begs attention. The “War on Terror” that we are fighting is a global problem, and therefore will take cooperation from global resources. As the past ten years have demonstrated, it is a task the U.S. military cannot do alone. Ten years from now, if we refuse to accept peace simply as an unattainable mirage and are able to remember the positive effect unity can have on the world, hopefully my generation of young adults will finally be able to remember a time without the endless war.
