Three September Elevens, two laments and a faint hope...

     Remember what George (Bush) said? That we'd all remember September 11. Perhaps. Perhaps things have not necessarily taken the road the U.S. president thought they would.

    He no doubt was not thinking about the military coup in Chile, which also took place on a September 11, nor had he in mind a third  September 11, teacher's day in Argentina. 

   Bush was trying to make Northamericans and people all over the world believe that something fundamental had changed, that the world would never be the same again, that good would win over evil and that God in the end would certainly be on his side.

     And then, as the ashes were still burning following the terrorist attack against the Twin Towers in New York City, a new version of an old concept was born: preventive warfare. That is, attack first and then hope for a fast K.O. Still, it is always convenient to drum up some sort of justification for a war.

    Danger! We were told Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (as if the United States did not, as if India did not, as if Pakistan did not, as if Israel did not, as if...as if Washington had not lent a hand to certain regimes in the fronteer areas considered friendly, some of which then became "unfriendly"...)

    So, in retaliation for the September 11 attack--still smoldering under convenient ambiguities and incomplete documentation concerning the real authors, the causes and purposes--what better than to find a victim. Iraq.

    With a dictator once silently backed up in view of Washington's fear of Iran. Can anyone seriously claim that the situation in Iraq is better than it was when the war began, that the world is less exposed to terrorist attacks? The war in Iraq and Afghanistan and who knows where else still wages wearily on. The daily toll of victims in Iraq: some 3,775 U.S. soldiers, nearly 25,000 wounded G.I's, and (no body seems to know the exact number) perhaps 600,000 Iraqui fatalities. And the torture of prisoners, the kidnapping of suspects, jailing them without trial...

    And there's certainly more to come. In spite of world and U.S. opinion, the Pentagon doesn't seem very eager to withdraw, maybe rotate a few troops, but ...withdraw? Will the Democrats really propose anything fundamentally different? After all, who would take care of those oil wells in one of the world's leading oil producers? Who would make sure Iran would not take advantage of the U.S. withdrawal? Who would bring the alleged benefits of capitalism and democracy to the war-torn middle east?

    Another September 11 took place in Chile, when General A. Pinochet grabbed power from Socialist  Salvador Allende, in an action openly applauded in Washington in view of its fear of a victory of socialist and anti-american forces. Leftists were rounded up, sent to concentration camps, according to recent newspaper accounts prisoners were abused and in some cases even tossed into the sea from airplanes. To save the country from the communist menace. The justification? If the ends are good, who cares what means are used to bring them about.

    Finally, the third September 11th is Argentina, teacher's day. A slim hope. The urgent need to re-educate a country also devastated by the rage of the 1976-82 Military Junta, which whisked away some 30,000 persons to death and oblivion, a coup that was also carried out in the context of the Cold War. Then the return to democracy, the selling off of State firms to the highest bidder and then...crash!Now underpaid teachers, over populated classrooms, and, well, if you're lucky enough to have struggled through the schools, what awaits you out there in today's lopsided world?