Fanny Rodriguez
Professor Brown
March 26, 2012
Not
everything is as it seems.
Terrorism
is define as “systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal”
in the www.dictionary.reference.com.
During 9-11 the shock of being under attack consume us up until the point where
we were annihilate, not knowing what to do to help or the inability to go out
there and help out drove us to a point of unmanageable range and to accuse
somebody of such actions. That somebody
it turns out to be the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda. Now the question is where
they the only truly ones to blame for
this war to break loose? Coordinating to Susan Sontag in her article “9/11” published in The
New Yorker only 13 days after the travesty, thinks it was not only the al-Qaeda to blame
but the self-proclaimed super powerful America as well. I agree with her
statement, after too much damage and hurt we weren’t thinking properly, therefore
in this essay I’ll demonstrate as to why I relate to her point of view as well
as understanding the opposing view.
Every time the topic of 9-11 is approached it brings
back those horrific pictures of a plane crashing at the World Trade Center
buildings and the Pentagon, causing a fog in our heads to not think clearly
anymore. We are being led to a point
where it is better to be told what is best to feel. “The voices licensed to
follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the
public “(Sontag) .
Why are we letting the government to treat us in such way? Treating us as infants who cannot handle the
reality of the world is just propitious. What is America hiding from us? Why can’t
they come out straight and say what have we done to other countries to deserve
their ire.
Throughout
history America has the tendency to invade other countries and making alliance with
some but we never get to see what is behind those negations. The “alliance”
with Iraq let us export petroleum to the United States, it’s all we know of such
alliance, but there’s more to it than that, we just don’t know about it because
we truly don’t care enough until an attack was place in America. Before the
attack “how many citizens are aware of the ongoing bombing in Iraq?” (Sontag) . Not many that’s’
for sure, unless you are directly influence by it you wouldn’t know. Living in
this country one has the tendency of if it’s not affecting you directly we let
it pass by us, as if it’s nothing of importance, even though in the future may
have a great impact, such as the 9-11 attack.
The
government does a really good job on keeping the citizens in the dark. One of their ways to keeping us in the dark
is by “…convincing us that everything is O.K. America is not afraid. Our spirit
is unbroken…” (Sontag) . Just these three
statements will have us believing such words even though at the present we are
currently in war. Why do we let the government manipulate us? We have to speak
up and let the government know that not everything is O.K. That America is
afraid, no, not afraid it is more than that. America is beyond terrified. And at this point our spirit is just shuddery broken.
America it’s not invincible and the al-Qaeda terrorist proved just that.
Now
it’s time to do something about such actions taken place in 9-11. It’s time to
stop the uncontrolled rage and to really sit down with a clear mind. “A lot of thinking needs to be done,…about the
ineptitude of America intelligence and counter-intelligence, about options to America foreign policy, particularly
in the Middle East, and about what constitutes a smart program of military defense” (Sontag) . These are the key
factors to keep America moving in a better future. It’s time stop the
government from keeping everything under wrap just for our “safety”. I think
since we the people live in this country and we voted for The President and for
our own safety, the government should lease important information to the
citizen and involved us more on policy making.
Throughout
the article Sontag used very well the strategy of ethos. Her statement were knowledgeable, reasoned with the audience
her point of view. For example “politics, the politics of a democracy-which
entails disagreement, which promotes candor-has been replaced by psychotherapy”
(Sontag) , today we live in a
world where “therapy” will fix everything. Is it truly fixing things up? One has
to be knowledgeable in order to play with the politics and democracy of this
country and Sontag did an excellent job achieving this goal.
Many
might think that this idea of stop been in the dark is just outrageous thinking.
The truth is they might in fact be correct. What if the government releases a set of
documents that pretty much states that America is forever to be in war with all
non-alliance countries? Also if the
media bombard us with images of the war constantly in full gory. Can we really
handle such grotesque reality? Many think Sontag was brutal on her article, and
I see why they got that impression from her. Telling a person that all their
life has been just a bubble of lies and that you are immature that you can’t even
speak up to defend yourself, must be horrific.
