Verified by 
On Sept 11, 2001 I was at work when my wife called and told me to get to a television. It didn't take much watching to comprehend the likely magnitude of this tragedy; thousands would die. It was hard to know how to react, but I had a patient waiting to be seen and so went on with my day.
As it happened, I had a class scheduled early that afternoon at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the military medical school. In 1969 I had what might charitably be described as a falling out with the Army when I was a doctor in Vietnam. Each year for the last 20 years I have spoken to medical students at USUHS about ethical conflicts inherent in military medicine. Around noon I got in my car and headed for the Naval Medical Center in suburban Washington DC.
The first thing I noticed was that the traffic coming out of Washington was unexpectedly heavy for that time of day. Just to be sure that the class had not been canceled I called the medical school. No answer. Then I heard on the radio that the Pentagon had been attacked and I concluded that all government business was finished for the day. What I didn't realize yet was that official Washington was in the process of executing a maneuver that can only be described as "run for your life." I turned around and drove home.
In subsequent days and weeks as the country tried to come to terms with the loss of 3000 of its citizens we were further traumatized by the anthrax attacks that killed five people and made thousands of others wary about picking up their mail. The Washington area was subjected to the "DC Snipers" who killed 13 before they were apprehended. In the further aftermath of 9/11 the stock market collapsed and airlines went out of business for lack of passengers. We were, in short, well and truly terrorized.
What was striking about our reaction to this attack was the gap between our patriotic protestations ("home of the brave") and our behavior, which more resembled a national anxiety episode. We were, of course, eager to strike back at our attackers and rallied around our political leadership that promised to do so. Every single politician had to respond affirmatively to the question "Are we at war?" and it was but a moment before the B-52's were bombing and the tanks were rolling, albeit down the roads of a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. Anyone who suggested that the stateless terrorists who had brought down those buildings constituted a criminal conspiracy that might better be dealt with through law enforcement or unconventional military forces was shouted down as insufficiently patriotic. This was Pearl Harbor and these terrorists were the 21st Century equivalent Empire of Japan. Our freedoms were under attack and our national existence was at stake. Ten years, 5000 American lives, and $1 trillion dollars later what do we have to show for the war on terror? Are we safer? Were we lied to? Have we relinquished anything of value in terms of our place in the world and our own self-respect as a constitutional democracy, a nation of laws, a champion of human rights?
Our soldiers have been elevated to the status of heroes for the sacrifices they were prepared to make in the service of their country. Aware of the experience of veterans of Vietnam who were not welcomed home with much enthusiasm after their service in that unpopular war, we made sure that the young men and women we send to Central Asia are the recipients of our admiration and gratitude for their service. "Support our Troops" symbols blossomed on the backs of our automobiles as we made clear our admiration for the heroism of all in uniform. This gesture was made easier by the fact that no sacrifices were required of us. We could indulge the advice of our President to "go shopping" while indulging our guilt about so much being required of so few by lionizing those who volunteered to take the risks of combat.
When I returned from Vietnam I remember thinking that nobody owed me anything for what I had seen and done. I no longer believed that the country was any more secure, or our freedoms enhanced by my service. Nobody spit on me or called me a baby killer nor did I know of anyone who had been subjected to such mythological indignities. In fact, most people didn't care what we had done and seen. There was a nearly instinctive sense on the part of a lot of returnees that all those lives lost, all that pain we had inflicted on ourselves and the little country we used to "contain communism" had been wasted. No important national interest had been served. We had all been pawns in a colossal misjudgment on the part of our political leadership over ten years. I remember seeing a cynical bumper sticker on a veteran's pickup truck back in the 70's: "Southeast Asian War Games, Second Place." Now at reunions of Vietnam veterans it is fashionable to reminisce about their service there, remember the comradeship, the intensity that the dangers of combat gave to our lives, and deny that we were ever defeated on the battlefield, only betrayed by the peace movement and politicians at home.
The damaged men and women now returning from similar ill-defined missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have been, as we were, changed by the experience. Their incidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder hovers around 20 percent. The increasing suicide rate among them is a vexing problem that the military struggles to come to grips with. The repeated deployments and lack of a draft fly in the face of any definition of a shared national commitment. When we think of them at all, it is to hail them as heroes. The more important question is what do they think of themselves? And what do they think of us who have not shared their awful experiences and cannot understand what they have been through? Has some important national objective been accomplished that justifies their sacrifices? Have the safety of our freedoms really been at stake?
It is a challenge to maintain a sense of unity among a people as diverse as our own. There are many who would divide us for political or personal gain. But nothing has the power to unite us like fear. The real threat to our way of life that World War II represented brought us together in a massive commitment to defeat those who were making credible efforts to impose their philosophies on the rest of the world. We were prepared to sacrifice anything to defeat them and we did. The many conflicts in which we have been engaged since have been, in contrast, wars of choice. Each one has been justified as necessary to defend our values, especially freedom, but viewed through the prism of history it is difficult to see how we are freer now than we were 65 years ago. The long "cold war" struggle with communism was won economically rather than on the battlefield but it suited some need within us to have them as an enemy for 50 years while we cowered under our school desks in the shadow of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD). It is hard to see the radical Islamists in the same light yet they frighten us into walking around airports in our stocking feet and turning out to rallies about where mosques can be built.
When will we get a grip on our reactions to the parade of malefactors the have always inhabited the world and the space under our beds. One of them, Osama Bin Laden is now dead, killed not by an occupying army but by painstaking intelligence and a SWAT team of Navy Seals. Still, as we always have, we continue to live in dangerous times. We are all subject to the realities of threatening outcomes and an unhappy ending to each of our stories. Perfect safety has always been an illusion and a fear that we might lose the people and values that mean the most to us is a natural reaction to life's uncertainties. But the choices we make about how to treat other people determine how happy and proud of ourselves we are in the moment. Vietnam provided us with an officer who stood in front of burning houses and said "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." This is the outcome of being so afraid of the enemy in front of us that we lose all perspective on what it means to live courageous and happy lives that sustain the values that make living worthwhile. These are the ideas that can finally unite us.
