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9-11: National Unity Without National Blindness

by James Grossman

Today, just before noon, Chicagoans ambled somberly toward outdoor public spaces to mourn and reflect. As I stood in Washington Square Park, a small park on the city’s north side adjacent to my workplace, my thoughts migrated from New York to the Middle East, from Washington, DC to the fountain ten yards away. Distances seemed magnified, perhaps because in Chicago we have been fortunate enough to experience this week’s events only through the m

9-11: What Historians Can Do to Help

by Robert Cook

On 28 January 1981 the new Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, remarked at his first news conference,"International terrorism will take the place of human rights in our concern because it is the ultimate abuse of human rights."Now, twenty years later, and two days after a coordinated terrorist attack on the citizens and symbols of America, we may be on the verge of a profound appreciation of General Haig's remarks.What we as citizen

Column: St. Clair, Little Turtle, Little Crow, and Little Six

by William Thompson

The events of September 11 are unprecedented in so many ways, yet they call out for a search for any historical parallels and lessons--perhaps unlearned, perhaps yet to be learned. The recent tragedies do not represent the first time that the United States's interests and people have been attacked on our own soil. They do not represent

9-11: Readers Comment on the Day of Infamy

by HNN Staff

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 9-13-01 Once we have discovered who is responsible for this cowardly attack, its time to unleash the FULL arsenal of the US military on him, and any country that is hiding them.We are the strongest nation is the history of the world, its time to put it to use! The whole world is behind us, nobody wants to be on the other side. The world knows our power and how weve been restraint until now. It's time to unleash the beast! Clay Jordan

9-11: History Is Being Made

by Christopher Phelps

I have experienced varying states of feeling that other people around the world seem to have felt as well -- disbelief, helplessness, horror, sadness, flashbacks to my own premonitions on airlines, instantaneous desire to shelter my children, memories of my various periods lived in New York, worries for acquaintances, general horror.I have great outrage at the attack on innocent civilian life, which I not only oppose on rational grou

9-11 HNN Editorial: The Price of Naivety

by Rick Shenkman

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news? Of course you do. This is one moment in time you are never likely to forget. We are in a new world. For many young people the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are likely to be the most important events to take place in their lives for decades to come. What the assassination of President Kennedy was for Baby Boomers, the September 11 bombings are to the next generation. For the past decade we h

Who is Osama bin Laden?

by Norman Markowitz

Although it remains unclear in these early hours who was responsible for the suicide attacks that have destroyed the world trade center and left many thousands dead, the growing evidence against Osama bin Laden should be supplemented by an understanding of bin Laden's past, particularly his important involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency in the war against the Peoples Democratic Party government of Afghanistan and its Soviet military

Column: We're Unified--Now Let's Hope We Get the Right Bastards

by P.M. Carpenter

On August 20, 1998 President Clinton lobbed $100 million worth of Tomahawk cruise missiles on a Sudanese chemical plant and reputed Afghan terrorist camp in retaliation for two U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa. The effect came just 13 days after the cause.In return for the White House decisiveness that most Americans repeatedly

9-11: Please Remember Dallas

by Rick Shenkman

This is the latest issue of Bill Kristol's magazine. It arrived through the mail Tuesday just in time to coincide with the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The cover features in bold print the headline,"Farewell to American Greatness." Though unintentional, it is music to the ears of terrorists. Bill Kristol is the victim of what must be the mo

9-11: Declaration of War

by Franklin Roosevelt

On December 8, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. He made the following remarks.Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that na- tion and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emper

9-11: Comments on the Oklahoma City Bombing

by Bill Clinton

Four days after the bombing of the Murrah building, President Clinton visited the city and attended a prayer service at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. These are some of his remarks. You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything. And you certainly have not lost America, for we will stand with you for as many tomorrows as it takes.... Our words seem small beside the loss you have endured. To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say one thing we owe those

Israel's Woody Allen Jewish Problem

by Ira Chernus

Although Israeli leaders insist they want a secure peace with all their neighbors, their frustrated desire for security is now blocking the path to peace. As the latest round in the Israeli-Palestinian battle nears its one-year anniversary, the violence mounts with no end in sight. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has yet to offer a clear vision of how it might end. Perhaps he is in no rush to sketch a final peace settlement because security, not peace, is Israel's paramount goal.

Has George W. Ever Heard of the Boxer Rebellion? (Let’s Hope So)

by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

When George W. Bush's advisers brief him for his October trip to Beijing, they may be tempted to only discuss recent conflicts. They should resist this temptation. Recent events certainly deserve attention. The collision last April between a Chinese jet and an American aircraft triggered a spy-plane crisis. And the Japanese Prime Minister's plan to visit a shrine honoring soldiers who died for his country during World War II has inflamed tension between China and Japan.

Column: A Conservative in Favor of Reparations

by William Thompson

The notion of paying reparations to selected groups of citizens as compensation for past social injustices is a very divisive issue. Advocates of reparations point to massive past wrongs that have lingering negative consequences for peoples. On the other hand, opponents of reparations suggest that the effects of the past misdeeds of generations ago are too diffuse to really

Should We Be Worried About War?

by Michael Creswell

As the United States confronts the New World of the 21st century, the nation must rethink how it can best defend and advance vital U.S. Interests. No longer concerned about a clash of arms with the old Soviet Union, America today faces new challenges to its security. To this end, the Bush administration is now deciding America's future international security strategy and the size and structure of the nation's military. The administration has already abandoned a strategy that called on Am

Civil Liberties: The Wrong Person, Emma Goldman's Story

by Edward Olshaker

11"Extra! Extra! President McKinley shot!" The shouts of the newsboy on a St. Louis street corner on September 6, 1901, one hundred years ago this week, grabbed the attention of anarchist leader Emma Goldman, who bought a paper to learn more about the shooting of our twenty-fifth president at the Exposition grounds in Buffalo. McKinley would die eight days later, the third president in 36 years to be murdered by a gunman. "It is fortunate that you are here and not in Buffalo

Column: Good-Bye Jesse—And Good Riddance!

by P.M. Carpenter

This is a sad time for bigots and other emotionally stunted yokels who loathe efforts at subsidizing school lunches for impoverished children, providing prescription coverage for the elderly, or guaranteeing civil rights. It's a sad time indeed, for as you know, one of the leading members of Congress' Joint Chiefs of Troglodytes, Jesse Helms, will be

Giving the Atlantic Charter a Face-Lift on Its 60th Anniversary

by Itai Sneh

This month marks the 60th anniversary of a watershed in U.S. history: the August 1941 Atlantic Charter. The alliance between Britain and the United States recognized in the Charter helped to win World War II and, later, to defeat communism. But that unique alliance is in trouble now because of fundamental differences between the two Atlantic powers on strategic and environmental issues. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter at

Explaining the Bush Administration’s Stumble in Australia

by Joseph M. Siracusa

The Bush administration has irritated many allies with its aversion to treaties, especially the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Mr. [Richard] Armitage, however, raised hackles as he singled out a treaty that the administration is partial to: the Australian-New Zealand United States Treaty, or Anzus, a mutual defense pact signed at the start of the cold war.... Blending what Australians interpreted as conde

Column: Powerball Fever

by William Thompson

Wow! Powerball fever. Mass traffic jams on freeways into Connecticut and Arizona. Nothing like it ever before. Get real. Mass hysteria is nothing new. Cases of collective panic behavior have been well documented and analyzed by social psyc