{"id":4716,"date":"2014-09-11T08:05:40","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T12:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2014-09-11T08:05:40","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T12:05:40","slug":"war-without-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2014\/09\/war-without-end\/","title":{"rendered":"War Without End"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"twin-towers-memorialjpg\"<\/a>(photo credit<\/a>)<\/p>\n

13 years later, we’re still fighting the war against terrorism, with no real end in sight.\u00a0 Today, September 11, we remember once again the horror, sorrow and losses of that terrible day.\u00a0 Yesterday, September 10, another U.S. President<\/a> vowed once again to eradicate the terrorists.\u00a0 Who actually believes that this will be the last time we’ll hear a U.S. president take that vow?<\/p>\n

13 years and one day ago, on September 10, 2001, most of us had never heard of Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.\u00a0 We had vague ideas about bad things happening far, far away at the hands of terrorists who immolated themselves while blowing up markets, restaurants and buses thousands of miles away in places most of us would never occupy.\u00a0 Too bad, we might say as we turned to the morning comics, but it could never happen here.<\/p>\n

13 years ago, on September 11, 2001, it did happen here.\u00a0 Even now, those images of planes flying into the twin towers are almost impossible to see.\u00a0 On the 4th floor of Main we watched as smoke rose from the Pentagon.\u00a0 I remember standing in the middle of Social Hall that morning as students, faculty and staff streamed in and crowded around the television — only 13 years ago, we did not have the ubiquitous smartphones, tablets and pervasive wifi access to the internet.\u00a0 We had one television in Social Hall and the entire Trinity community crowded in to watch.\u00a0 Rumors of bombings all over Washington shook the crowd.\u00a0 “What will we do?\u00a0 Where will we go?\u00a0 How will we be safe?” students were asking.\u00a0 I did not have a clue. \u00a0 The Trinity community managed through that moment with as much grace and common sense as we could muster, and by the end of the day everyone on campus made it home safely.\u00a0\u00a0 That was not true for about a dozen members of our extended Trinity family, relatives and friends who perished at the World Trade Center or Pentagon or on the planes.\u00a0 We remember them especially today.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the last 13 years, we’ve come to know the cast of characters all too well, the leaders of terrorist organizations with murderous intentions and deranged goals.\u00a0 We’ve heard presidents and politicians proclaim Shock and Awe, Mission Accomplished, Bring ’em to Justice, etc. etc. etc.\u00a0 We’ve watched the flag-draped caskets of thousands of military service members arrive at Dover.\u00a0 A war to end madness may be madness, itself.<\/p>\n

I wish I could feel confident about President Obama’s promise last night<\/a> to “degrade and destroy” the terrorists in Syria.\u00a0 I wish we could stop hearing about “degrade and destroy” and all of the other words of war that, in the end, only serve to inflame the terrorists even more.\u00a0 Unlike conventional war, fought like some kind of sporting contests, where two sides go at it until one side gives up and surrenders or runs away, the war against terrorism is not against a clearly defined opponent in a nation-state, and what constitutes “winning” is an elusive notion.\u00a0 Terrorists are individuals who act much like viruses, and rather than eradicating the virus hostile actions can actually cause the disease to spread.\u00a0 Terrorists are everywhere, even here in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0 We sometimes forget that one of the most appalling acts of terrorism occurred in Oklahoma City, committed by an American veteran, Timothy McVeigh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On this September 11, perhaps the best thing we can do to honor those who died that day is to pray for peace, and then to use our advocacy to insist that our political leadership do more than promise to keep dropping bombs, which may be necessary but seems almost like a hopeless gesture in the face of evil.\u00a0\u00a0 Our leaders cannot keep waging war without end.\u00a0\u00a0 We must insist that they find a way to more lasting peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 11 we remember all who died on that day and who have sacrificed so much since then. In remembering them, let us also pray for peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[395],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-september-11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}