Transcript Geographies of September 11

Geographies of September 11th:
How has the world changed?
Before and after
View from space
Ground Zero
Locale: Mapping Ground Zero
Location:
U.S. regions pulled together
• Attacks took place on East Coast, we did not
experience them directly in our backyard.
• Yet empathy and fear spread throughout the U.S.
• No more New York jokes.
• More identification with government workers
(firefighters, police, mail carriers, etc.)
Sense of place:
Hallowed ground
“Sacred” sites
Shanksville,
Pennsylvania
New York
Washington, DC
Reconstruction plans on 16 acres
Reactions to reconstruction plans
Reconstruction plans
Freedom Tower
Rising 1,776 feet (tallest on Earth)
with wind turbines on top
WTC Memorial
“Reflected Absence” fountains in
footprints of Twin Towers
Reconstruction priorities
Skyscrapers vulnerable,
provocative target
Pentagon functional,
expected target
Has September 11
“changed the world”?
• The attacks affected the entire world.
• The attacks primarily changed the
United States.
• But changing the U.S. can in turn
change the world.
Distance and might no longer
protect the United States
British burn White
House, 1812
Japanese fire
balloons, 1944
Pancho Villa raids
Columbus NM, 1916
Japanese bomb Hawaii, 1941
U.S. civilians have
experienced the pain of war
Srebrenica, Bosnia,
1995: 7,000 dead
Rwanda, Africa,
1994: 800,000 dead
United States, 2001:
3,000 dead
Victims of the attacks
were from 60 countries
(including many undocumented workers)
Targeting
of Muslim
immigrants
and other religious
minorities
Sikhs
Muslims
Jews
“Clash of Civilizations”:
Lumping of the Islamic world vs. the West
Human Rights under fire
Use of Islamist terrorism
to justify crackdowns
Russians flatten
capital of Chechnya
Conflicts intensify in
Muslim regions
(though not necessarily centered on religion)
Indians in
Kashmir
Israelis in West
Bank and Gaza
Chinese in
Xinjiang
Al-Qaeda as a product
of globalization
(Bin Laden exploiting and
manipulating Muslims’ alienation)
Poverty
Foreign
domination
Corruption
Al-Qaeda as an example
of globalization
(Bin Laden the multinational CEO)
Internet cafe
Translated U.S. military leaflet
dropped on Afghanistan
Saudi bank
“The enemy of my enemy
is my friend”?
• U.S. aided Islamic fundamentalists to
fight Soviet Union in Afghanistan:
"What was more important in the worldview of history? The
Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred-up
Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the
Cold War?” (President Carter’s national security advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1996).
• Who are our new friends against Al-Qaeda? Are we now
risking the same backfire effect (or “blowback”) again?
War in Afghanistan
• Bin Laden provoked U.S. to
launch ground invasion?
• Bin Laden thought he would
“fight the last war” that the
Afghans had won against the
Russians.
• Taliban were easy to defeat
in war, but the “peace” can
become more difficult.
Complex Afghan ethnic geography
No matter which ethnic“warlord” we support,
someone else feels we are taking sides
Caspian
Basin
oil and gas
pipelines
Plans for
route across
Afghanistan
New U.S. military bases
New U.S. “Sphere of
Influence” in region.
Bases built to wage the
wars, or the wars waged
to build the bases?
1. Gulf War,
1991
2. Yugoslav Wars,
1995-99
3. Afghan War,
2001
4. Iraq War,
2003
Current debates
• Does the “War on Terror” justify a permanent role
for U.S. military bases and oil companies?
• Carries the risk of “overstaying our welcome”
and causing a new “blowback”?
• Iraq War justified by linking Bin Laden, Saddam
(though they hate each other)?
• Resentment/recruitment increasing since
occupation of Iraq (Self-fulfilling prophecy?)
Confronting hatred at the roots
“There has been a remarkable reluctance in
America to confront the more complex historical
dimensions of this hatred. The inclination instead
has been to rely on abstract assertions like
terrorists ‘hate freedom’ or that their religious
background makes them despise Western culture.
To win the war on terrorism…. begin a political
effort that focuses on the conditions that brought
about their emergence.”
(President Carter’s national security advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 2001).
Geographies of September 11
DOMESTIC
FOREIGN
• Boundaries violated in
attack on “homeland.”
• U.S. regions have a
common grievance &
experience of war.
• “Sense of place” of
9/11 attack sites.
• New phase of antiimmigrant sentiment
• Islam vs. West geopolitical
simplifications.
• Al-Qaeda as a product &
example of globalization.
• Ethnic complexities of
Middle East/Central Asia
• Natural resources (oil).
• New U.S. military bases
• Shifting international
alliances