Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Existentialism
September 11, 2001, was on a Tuesday. We were a year from a contested election decided by the Supreme Court. We were scrambling to make sense of the senseless, and trying mightily, not to individually, or collectively go insane.
I remember President George W. Bush being told that we were under attack, and the astonished look on his face. He had received a PDB: Presidential Daily Brief, in Crawford, Texas a month before that was explicit in its description: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." The affable person everyone would "like to have a beer with" (though he's a teetotaler) apparently said to the intelligence agent, "You've covered your ass now." He was already setting a precedent, a pattern, for his republican successors in the number of days he vacationed at his ranch rather than actually work in Washington. The presidency from a distance looked like an easy job to anyone who wanted to throw their hat in the ring. Social media and Nielsen Ratings meant the only thing one had to do was something outrageous for attention and "clicks." We have become Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle."
I remember the push after the attacks not to understand why a former intelligence asset, Osama Bin Laden, wanted to smash planes into the symbols of financial and political power, CNN reporter Peter Bergen reported on the former Mujahadeen rebel from the mountains of Afghanistan. He was hard to catch because the CIA taught him their playbook.
I remember the push to "get back to normal," to shop, to "help the economy" as an act of defiance to then, the grossest attack on US soil that had ever been captured on film. It felt like the same push to get the economy "rocking again" during Covid.
I remember that we never collectively, sought counsel about what had then happened to us, and how it might have affected us psychologically as a country.
Posttraumatic stress disorder: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying.
PTSD has been known by many names in the past, such as “shell shock” during the years of World War I and “combat fatigue” after World War II, but PTSD does not just happen to combat veterans. PTSD can occur in all people, of any ethnicity, nationality, or culture, and at any age. PTSD affects approximately 3.5 percent of U.S. adults every year. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD in adolescents ages 13 -18 is 8%. An estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. Women are twice as likely as men to have PTSD. Three ethnic groups – U.S. Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans/Alaska Natives – are disproportionately affected and have higher rates of PTSD than non-Latino whites.
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares; they may feel sadness, fear, or anger; and they may feel detached or estranged from other people. People with PTSD may avoid situations or people that remind them of the traumatic event, and they may have strong negative reactions to something as ordinary as a loud noise or an accidental touch.
Psychiatry.org: What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?
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At least 14 people are dead and 35 people were injured after a man drove a truck into a crowd at Bourbon and Canal streets in New Orleans on New Year's Day in a terrorist attack, according to the FBI.
It happened around 3:15 a.m. toward the end of New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans and hours before the expected kickoff of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Caesars Superdome.
The FBI confirmed the identity of the suspected driver of the truck as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas. A new photo of Jabbar was released early Thursday morning:
The FBI confirmed that despite previous reports, investigators believe Jabbar acted alone in the attack.
According to the FBI, Jabbar drove to New Orleans on Dec. 31 and posted on Facebook his support for ISIS.
14 victims dead, 35 hurt as FBI puts call out for tips in terror attack investigation, Erin Lowrey, WDSU News
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The suspected driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday outside the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head prior to the blast, officials confirmed in a press briefing Thursday.
The Clark County Coroner identified the driver of the vehicle in this incident as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday. His cause of death was as a result of an intraoral gunshot wound by suicide.
No one else suffered serious injuries.
Prior to his official identification, officials found overwhelming evidence -- including credit cards in his name, similar tattoos, Livelsberger purchasing the weapons in the truck, and an ID card -- pointing to him as the individual. The fire and explosion slowed the identification process because of the physical injuries sustained by the driver, officials said.
Suspect in Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion was an Army member on leave, Josh Margolin, Alex Stone, Alexandra Hutzler, David Brennan, Aaron Katersky, and Julia Reinstein, ABC News
Jabbar and Livelsberger were US Army veterans who had been stationed at Fort Bragg/Liberty. Both men had deployed to Afghanistan after the attacks of 9/11. Both were decorated veterans who had "protected and served" their country.
Both men were broken. The country is still broken.
We lost the Vietnam War and the veterans who survived came home and were spat upon as "baby killers." The propaganda movies by Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the 1980s tried to bring back our collective loss of esteem and testosterone. In the Reagan era, we were trying to re-establish the chutzpah of old World War II movies where the "good guys won."
We started going dark in our entertainment with the Michael Keaton "Batman," and the plethora of clone superhero movies spawned that had to be "grounded" in reality, involving a lot of property damage, and bloodshed. "24" was our revenge porn, and the template for things on television going ... dark. We were the "good guys," even if Jack Bauer had to torture a captive terrorist for info before the hour was up. This was copied in the live-action "Arrow" and in the animated series, Batman Beyond: "This is how you interrogate someone!" It was a subtle, inexorable change into the abyss. The fantasy entertainment made torture "cool," and it morphed soldiers', citizens, and politicians' psyches.
Shamsud Din Jabbar was 42, and Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was 37. That would make both men 19, and 14, respectively, when 9/11 happened. They joined. They deployed. They were radicalized, and that can take many forms from many venues.
I'm talking about 2 men, a microcosm of 330 million citizens.
Before 9/11, you could walk with your loved ones to the plane they were boarding. Before 9/11, your shoes stayed on your feet, and not fed into an X-ray. Before 9/11, there wasn't an invasive body scan or bomb dogs sniffing as you passed through the line if you didn't have TSA Pre-Check. You weren't separated by personnel incessantly checking your ID. Before 9/11, even if you didn't board the plane, you were a part of the trip, departure, and return. Halcyon days before giving up our civil liberties to sit on an overcrowded bus with wings.
"United States" was always a caveat, an oxymoron for Indigenous Peoples, captured Africans, and the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroads, victims of their efficiency, and the first "war on drugs" that was a war on their competitive labor. "Melting pot" was always self-gaslighting and propaganda, a putty to hide the fissures beneath the surface of an unstable foundation that we just can't lie our way around, or ban its history.
Something broke Jabbar and Livelsberger before they deployed to Afghanistan.
Something broke us as a country, and we still haven't solicited counsel, or been on a couch.
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