9/11
"Of course, my obsession with 9/11 mirrored the national obsession. At the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the country has yet to digest that paralyzing event into its national consciousness. The memory is still fresh and raw, and no amount of granite and water memorials can make us serene about it...."
The Royal Library of Alexandria was the largest and most important center of learning and culture for the ancient world. Built in the Third Century B.C. it was famously burned by the soldiers of Julius Caesar in 48 B.C.---“accidentally” Caesar would say. In 2001 the new, largely digital Biblioteca Alexandria rose dramatically in its place with the hope that it would be a worthy successor to its ancient predecessor as a beacon of enlightenment to the region. In December 2002 I sat around a table with Arab scholars there to discuss the stereotypes that the Arab and Western worlds held about one another in the wake of 9/11. (“Four Historical Misconceptions of the Past 16 Months” below.) In the audience around our table were a number of Islamic fundamentalists who took notes on any incorrect remarks that the Arab commentators made. It was my first experience of witnessing how the radical fringe intimidates and suppresses free thought and free expression in that part of the world.
A year later, in the winter of 2003, I was invited to go on an Arab book tour when Warriors of God was published in Arabic. As I lectured in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, and Cairo, Vice President Dick Cheney was touring the same cities in an effort to jinn up support for an American invasion of Iraq. I thought the idea was so totally ridiculous that I dismissed the possibility in my discussions with my Arab hosts. True, America was gripped by a desire for retribution and revenge for 9/11, but what did Iraq have to do with that? In turn, young Arabs spoke of their admiration for America. Unlike the British and the French, they said, “you never occupied us.” But tensions were rising, and I would have a personal taste of the danger during a lecture in Beirut. I wrote about that tense moment when I got home in the “Letter from Beirut” (below). Four weeks after I returned, the U.S. invaded Iraq.
In 2005, with the war raging in Iraq, I attended a literary conference in Doha, Qatar, as the only American writer, and there had a sharp exchange with the Pakistani writer, Tariq Ali. Suddenly, I was thrust into the uncomfortable role of defending the United States against charges of being aggressive, cowardly, and imperialist. How things had changed!
Of course, my obsession with 9/11 mirrored the national obsession. At the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the country has yet to digest that paralyzing event into its national consciousness. The memory is still fresh and raw, and no amount of granite and water memorials can make us serene about it.... partly because the process is on-going. Five thousand American soldiers died in the Iraq War and over 200,000 have been wounded. This is a pittance compared to over one million Iraqis who died. Is it any wonder we are reviled in that region? And now there is Afghanistan which continues, if we are to believe the political rhetoric of our politicians, to eliminate the possibility of a safe haven for Al Qaeda. I would vent my frustration about that specious argument in a USA Today essay, “Is Afghanistan World One More Life?” I would tap other obsessions and link them to the current situation. I applied the Nixon/Frost experience to Bush, wondering whether he, like Nixon, would ever get his prosecutorial comeuppance for his criminal decision to invade Iraq, for the domestic inquisition that his crusade against terrorism would launch, and for his Administration’s approval of torture. When it was all over, I argued, America would need a purification.
Partly at the urging of my children to leave the ancient history and join the modern world, I decided to draw upon all the knowledge I had gained in writing about the clashes of Christian crusades and Islamic jihads in history and apply those lessons to the here-and-now. And so arose the idea of returning to fiction to write a novel based upon the story of Ziad Jarrah, the fourth and only "unsuccessful" of the 9/11 hijacker pilots. Jarrah was born in Beirut, educated in Germany where he fell into Muhammad Atta’s circle, trained in Florida. Ultimately, on Flight 93, he was overwhelmed in the cockpit by the heroic passenger revolt, leading to the crash in Shankesville, Pennsylvannia, and sparing of the U.S. Capitol. In writing that book, to be published in 2012 with the title, The Nineteenth Hijacker, I was greatly influenced as well by another old obsession when it came to understanding the recruitment of Jarrah by Atta and his gang: the Jonestown experience. I always have viewed the Hamburg cell as a cult and Osama bin Laden as a charismatic charlatan.
A year later, in the winter of 2003, I was invited to go on an Arab book tour when Warriors of God was published in Arabic. As I lectured in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, and Cairo, Vice President Dick Cheney was touring the same cities in an effort to jinn up support for an American invasion of Iraq. I thought the idea was so totally ridiculous that I dismissed the possibility in my discussions with my Arab hosts. True, America was gripped by a desire for retribution and revenge for 9/11, but what did Iraq have to do with that? In turn, young Arabs spoke of their admiration for America. Unlike the British and the French, they said, “you never occupied us.” But tensions were rising, and I would have a personal taste of the danger during a lecture in Beirut. I wrote about that tense moment when I got home in the “Letter from Beirut” (below). Four weeks after I returned, the U.S. invaded Iraq.
In 2005, with the war raging in Iraq, I attended a literary conference in Doha, Qatar, as the only American writer, and there had a sharp exchange with the Pakistani writer, Tariq Ali. Suddenly, I was thrust into the uncomfortable role of defending the United States against charges of being aggressive, cowardly, and imperialist. How things had changed!
Of course, my obsession with 9/11 mirrored the national obsession. At the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the country has yet to digest that paralyzing event into its national consciousness. The memory is still fresh and raw, and no amount of granite and water memorials can make us serene about it.... partly because the process is on-going. Five thousand American soldiers died in the Iraq War and over 200,000 have been wounded. This is a pittance compared to over one million Iraqis who died. Is it any wonder we are reviled in that region? And now there is Afghanistan which continues, if we are to believe the political rhetoric of our politicians, to eliminate the possibility of a safe haven for Al Qaeda. I would vent my frustration about that specious argument in a USA Today essay, “Is Afghanistan World One More Life?” I would tap other obsessions and link them to the current situation. I applied the Nixon/Frost experience to Bush, wondering whether he, like Nixon, would ever get his prosecutorial comeuppance for his criminal decision to invade Iraq, for the domestic inquisition that his crusade against terrorism would launch, and for his Administration’s approval of torture. When it was all over, I argued, America would need a purification.
Partly at the urging of my children to leave the ancient history and join the modern world, I decided to draw upon all the knowledge I had gained in writing about the clashes of Christian crusades and Islamic jihads in history and apply those lessons to the here-and-now. And so arose the idea of returning to fiction to write a novel based upon the story of Ziad Jarrah, the fourth and only "unsuccessful" of the 9/11 hijacker pilots. Jarrah was born in Beirut, educated in Germany where he fell into Muhammad Atta’s circle, trained in Florida. Ultimately, on Flight 93, he was overwhelmed in the cockpit by the heroic passenger revolt, leading to the crash in Shankesville, Pennsylvannia, and sparing of the U.S. Capitol. In writing that book, to be published in 2012 with the title, The Nineteenth Hijacker, I was greatly influenced as well by another old obsession when it came to understanding the recruitment of Jarrah by Atta and his gang: the Jonestown experience. I always have viewed the Hamburg cell as a cult and Osama bin Laden as a charismatic charlatan.
Articles:
"Seeking Meaning from the Grand Imam"
Appeared in Washington Post March 31, 2002 view PDF “Four Historical Misconceptions of the Past 16 Months” lecture at Biblioteca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, at conference on “Cultures and the Enemy Image.” Dec. 16, 2002 view PDF "Letter from Beirut" April 14, 2003 view PDF "The Novel and History" A lecture to a symposium during the annual Grand Cultural Festival, March 23-24,2005 Doha, Qatar view PDF “The American Inquisition” Appeared in USA Today, April 18, 2006 view PDF |
"Purification Starts with the Truth"
Appeared in USA Today, May 9 2007 view PDF "We're all responsible for Iraq?" Appeared in USA Today May 9, 2007 view PDF "Iraq, Anyone?" Appeared in USA Today, Jan. 15, 2008 view PDF "Who will get Bush to Confess? " Appeared in British Esquire, Feb 2009 view PDF "Is Afghanistan worth one more American Life?" Appeared in USA Today, August 17, 2011 view PDF "Remembering Flight 93: “Okay. Let’s Roll!”" Appeared on American Heritage website, September/October 2021 Volume 66 Issue 6 view link | view PDF |