Remembering 9/11 and Moving Forward

America must move from the errant, retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation.

Before the Congress adjourns, I will bring forth a new proposal for the establishment of a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, which will have the power to compel testimony and gather official documents to reveal to the American people not only the underlying deception which has divided us, but in that process of truth seeking set our nation on a path of reconciliation.

We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda, which has set America on a course of the destruction of another nation and the destruction of our own Constitution. And we have become less secure as a result of the warped practice of pursing peace through the exercise of pre-emptive military strength.

It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which followed, locking us into endless conflict, a war on terror which has wrought further terror worldwide and which has severely damaged our standing worldwide as an honorable, compassionate nation. As we were all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 9/11.

Our government's external response to 9/11 was to attack a nation which did not attack us. Indeed on the first anniversary of 9/11, the Bush administration issued a well-publicized stern warning to Iraq which was part of a campaign to induce people to believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

The deliberate, systematic connection of Iraq with 9/11 has led America into a philosophical and moral cul-de-sac as over one million Iraqis and over 4155 US soldiers have died in a war which will cost over $3 trillion. Additionally, soldiers from 23 other countries have died in the Iraq war.

We attempt to unite Iraq by further dividing it. We talk about restoring Iraq while taking steps to place control of its vast oil wealth in the hands of US oil giants. And we intend to impose upon the Iraqi people the cost of rebuilding a country which our government ruined, keeping a once prosperous nation lashed to debt and poverty for a long, long time. Iraq has paid for 9/11. We all continue to pay for 9/11.

The heartbreaking loss of the lives and injuries to America troops further binds us to the Administration's illogic of the Iraq war: We remember our troops' sacrifice by demanding more sacrifice; we support our troops by continuing the war.

The dominant color of our new national security since 911 is neither red, white nor blue. Everyday is orange. Everyday reminders of fear of 9/11 become banal.. Yet we no longer hear the airport announcements nor see the orange colored warnings because they have commonplace standards in our new national security state, as is the Patriot Act, wiretapping, and a host of invasions of privacy and diminution of civil liberties. The Constitution has been roundly attacked by the very people who took an oath to defend it.

There is a powerful desire across America for change, not necessarily from control by one political party to another, but a change from living with lies to living with truth.

Over two dozen nations, facing peril within and without, deeply divided by politics and war have travelled down a path of restoring civil society through a formal process of reconciliation. At some point within each of those countries it was understood that the way forward is shown through the light of truth. This process is not without pain because it requires a willingness to study evidence to which eyes had been averted and ears had been closed. But in the process of truth and reconciliation, nations found new strength, new resolve, new commitment.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation enabled that nation to come to grips with its past through a public confessional, bringing forward those who committed crimes and having the power to grant amnesty for full disclosure of crimes against the people. Of course, our path may necessarily be different: High US government officials stand accused in Impeachment petitions of violating national and international law. Our continued existence as a democracy may depend upon how thoroughly we seek the truth. I will call upon the America people to join me in supporting this effort.

The truth can move us forward, as a unified whole, so that we can one day become a re-United States. 9/11 is the day the world changed. It is the day America embraced a metaphor of war. If we are open to truth and reconciliation, we may one day be able, once again, to embrace peace.

Comments

[propax]

A "Truth and Reconciliation" commission would certainly have its work cut out for it. Not only would it have to deal with issues like pre-emptive war, torture, and assaults on the Constitution, but it should also target larger issues like "endless enemies", "socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else", "war is our only tool", etc.
Rep. Kucinich, I certainly wish you well in trying to establish this commission, and I will certainly lend my support for it, but, cynic that I am, I don't think it's going to happen.

[rayr1763]

There is a powerful desire across America for change, not necessarily from control by one political party to another, but a change from living with lies to living with truth.


This is the change we need in America!

[insanityfollows]

Thank you Mr. Kucinich. You continue to remain a voice of reason, logic and truth.

I heard the President's remarks at the Pentagon memorial today and felt nauseated when I heard him speak of the "enemies of America" and "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here'. He went on, and mentioned the troops we have lost since that day. He didn't say Iraq specifically, but mentioned that we were fighting two wars, etc... What incredible sheer gall. There is nothing, NOTHING, that can ever justify this Administration's manipulation of this country's wounded pride to make the case for the invasion of Iraq. The fact that he can even get up and speak in public when Bin Laden and Al Queda, the Taliban all remain and are resurgent is inconceivable. The anger and grief we still feel as a nation 7 years after 9/11/01 will always remain, but as long as those who perpetrated these crimes remain free and we fight an unjustified war in Iraq, we won't be able to truly bury our dead.

[sisyphusredux]

Representative Kucinich:

As the wife of a Croat from Bosnia who survived the late troubles in the former Yugoslavia, I must confess myself to be puzzled by you. Your own people suffered similar terrorist atrocities at the hands of Serbia not so very long ago.

Remember the pacifists who marched in Sarajevo for "peace" just before the war started? Remember how they were ruthlessly shot down by Serbian snipers as thry tried to protest? Remember Srebrenica and the slaughtered Muslims, who died because your much beloved UN "peacekeeping" troops were unable and unwilling to protect them?

Truth and reconciliation, Horseapples. What we need is justice.

And, more to the point, what we need is to understand the people who declared war on us. You obviously haven't a clue. So I would strongly advise you to spend some time in Bosnia and the Middle East and............

LEARN.

Come back and let us know what you've learned.

If you manage to survive.

[mosh]

Emerge, if you can, from your myopic vision of the world. There are many roads to justice, many trails, just because one road is blocked or fails does not mean another should not be tried. The analogies you raise are not identical. Congressman Kucinich calls for impeachment. Failing that, where the nation hasn't the will to look back (how ugly is that) he calls for the nation to 'perfect' itself in the eyes of the world by admitting its crimes (or mistakes for the faint of heart), for the crimes against humanity.

Dennis Kucinich is not naive. But he is frustrated. Frustrated at the lack of will of the American people to demand accountability.

The people who declared war on us are not the Iraqis or the croats or the whole muslim nation. The people who declared war on us live in caves along the Afghan-Pakistan border and can be brought to justice without declaring some media saturated war on terror.

Leave your smaller mindset behind and join the larger cause -bringing America into the 21st Centurty before she is left behind and then left to her unilateral devices.

Having said this, I am sorry for the loss that fuels your post.

[lakat]

Without fail, Dennis Kucinich says the words that flood my heart and mind as though he were giving my thoughts an eloquent voice. I appreciate him so much as he gives me hope for our broken government. Now if the American people (you know who you are!) would only give me the same hope.

It is not the individual I decry, it is the collective society that is mentally ill. Too much TV and print news, people, get off the drug.

[oldrwizr]

Thank God for you and your honesty and courage Congressman Kucinich.

[lw1899]

Let's not forget the scandals that were by-products of the 9/11 wars:

- under-equipped troops with no personal armor riding unarmored vehicles
- the Pat Tillman cover-up
- Abu Ghraib torture
- Guantanamo Bay torture
- Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect
- multiple desecrations of the Koran by military personnel further angering and alienating Muslims
- rapes and killings of innocent Iraqi civilians
- lack of mental health support for returning troops resulting in a higher suicide rate

[mosh]

Wake up America!

Wake up America!!

Wake up America!!!

Visit Dennis Kucinich's website and put your money to work supporting a true patriot -

www.kucinich.us

[Daly]

Bravo

[RoloTomassi]

Congressman Kucinich,

With all the pain and sorrow that this anniversary revives in the American public, your rational input is much needed.

But despite all that we suffered on 9/11/2001, we cannot continue to wallow in blind patriotism and the mindless violence that such inspires. How many Americans can sanely recognize the direct link between US actions in Iraq in 1963 and the 9/11 attacks without being accosted as a supporter of the much over-blown concept of "Islamo-Fascism"? How is it that we can dismiss a law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism and delude ourselves that our fate in Afghanistan will be any different than that of Russia in the 1980s? How can we come to terms with the truth when we as a nation are, for the most part, in deep denial of our own role in the global troubles we face?

The illegal interventions and support of oppressive regimes by the US are too many to recount, but mostly we are unaware of them, and will deny the truth of them if confronted with the facts. If the US were to take pay reparations to the nations it has wronged [adjusted for inflation], our national debt would seem like a pittance by comparison. And that doesn't include the Native Americans we stole this country from, and the injustice we impose upon them to the current day.

To paraphrase Nicholson in "A Few Good Men," when it comes to truth, we can’t handle it.

[BigLib]

Ugh! I knew this was the wrong blog to visit on 9-11.

[RoloTomassi]

Wow, for once you told the truth! Really, you should be posting on a site where GOP & NeoCon blowhards are busy lamenting our tribulations as the world's lone shining light of true democracy, and the price we pay because Islamo-fascists HATE OUR FEEDOMS.

[orangepetal]

We are not the lone shining light of true democracy, billions of people enjoy the freedoms we do, the freedoms that our founding fathers aspired to. You can have your opinion, but forgive me if not all of us share it.

[YUNIINTAXCO]

Kucinich is well within his right to question our governments role on and preceding 9/11. He is a true public servant, and knows that challenging those in power is a noble form of patriotism. The Bush admin. can claim whatever they like about pre 9/11 intelligence, but even the commission report which is about as mild of an inquiry as washington could have staged, shows that information on the attacks was available at state and national levels.

If Kucinich looked like Robert Redford, he would have served a presidential term by now.

[demigod]

I've always said that if Dennis looked like Mitt Romney, he'd be President of the United State for sure. That shows how shallow the American voters are - just look at all this Palin nonsense - her votes are identical to Cheney's or Tom DeLay's but somehow she's NEW and FRESH and people are flocking to her for CHANGE.

Let's remember on 9/11 how Bush opposed creating the 9/11 Commission, refused to testify without Cheney at his side, and advised Condoleeza Rice not to cooperate.

[mosh]

Sadly, America seems incapable of the kind of national introspection you suggest. Still one must applaud you in your tireless quest to restore the rule of law and America's moral integrity at home and throughout the world.

Your call to action demonstrates that citizens need not don a uniform to serve their country heroically, in fact, in times like these, real courage lies in vehemently exposing preemptive war for what it is - a crime against humanity. And those who perpetrate such war are not patriots or heroes - they are criminals - and must be held accountable.

Thank you, Dennis Kucinich, you are a true patriot.

[957]

Yes and why do americans have to "celebrate" this day, what purpose does it serve to plunge us back into a depressing time in our history, we know what happened on this day why does the media and politicians feel the need to keep it in our face. Many of us would just as soon forget this day, those that lost love ones/friends should remember it and not be subjected to a public memorial. We don't give this much hype to december 7 1941.

[OhioJan]

You're right; "we DON'T give this much hype to 7 Dec 1941". Because we don't "CELEBRATE" it - much like we don't "celebrate" Tuesday, September 11, 2001...We "REMEMBER & HONOR" them and pray to "God" that we've LEARNED from history & don't repeat the SAME MISTAKES!!! Funny that you mention the 2 most well-known pre-war instances in our modern history: That, in BOTH instances, our "presidents" (""s are used to denote that GWB has NEVER behaved like a United States President or PROTECTED our Constitution) were WARNED of coming attacks on US soil WEEKS before the attacks! They told their "messangers", "Thanks, you've done your job, now you can leave", then proceeded to put that INTEL in the TRASH CAN!

My Father fought to protect my, AND YOUR, "rights" in WW2 AND Korea. He heard from higher-ups ALL during his 2 tours in Japan (WW2) on how FDR blew off the INTEL on the "Kamikazi" attacks on Hawaiian soil. He - EXACTLY LIKE GWB DID 60 YEARS LATER - failed the American people, as WELL as her Allies.

We don't "celebrate" the horrific moments in American history, but rather, we HONOR and REMEMBER those who sacrificed the ULTIMATE sacrifice in order for their predecessors (us - GWB included) to LEARN the LESSON History needed us to learn.

[Mason]

Celebration is the wrong word. Remembrance is the right word. We remember this day in infamy to honor those who lost their lives and the freedoms stolen from us by opportunistic fascists in control of our government. We shall never forget. Enough is enough!

[TomSongs]

A Peaceful Solution-Impeachment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYlIsk7k-Gc