The Lessons of September 11

Fr. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.

The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies,

University of Notre Dame

September 13, 2001

While our hearts continue to go out to all of those who mourn the loss of loved ones, it is important that we at this university begin to ask ourselves what lessons we might learn from the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11 in New York and Washington, how we might minimize the likelihood of something so devastating from happening again and how we might best build peace in our world. The lessons we learn and how we respond as a nation to these destructive acts is of greatest importance and will affect the likelihood such attacks will be attempted again.

Although it is important to find and prosecute those responsible for participating in the murder of so many, it is also very important to realize that the tough talk of reprisal that may play well to Americans, who are understandably angry, does nothing to prevent further attacks, and, in fact, there is reason to believe that threats and tough talk simply make such attacks more likely rather than less likely. Remember, we are often dealing with people who apparently do not value their own lives, let alone the lives of others. To issue threats and to engage in tough talk is in effect to lay down the gauntlet.

While it is important to do all we can to bolster our security and intelligence capabilities in order to expose terrorist plots before they can be carried out, it is of even greater importance to begin to do what we can to make such plots less likely from materializing in the first place. In other words, we must address the causes of terrorism rather than just the symptoms. While there will always be some “sick” people with a cause, who have little regard for life, including their own, and there is no completely fail-safe way to prevent such people from attacking others, we should ask ourselves how we might make it less likely for such sick people to gain disciples, sponsors and protectors.

There are no easy answers, but, for anyone who has spent any time in developing countries, it is easy to see how poverty and, thanks to greater access to media in the developing world, a growing awareness of relative deprivation among people in poor countries breeds hate and is making it increasingly easy for “sick” people to recruit disciples willing to murder millions of people and end their own lives in the process.

After World War II, the United States recognized that, unless the winners of that war did something to, among other things, promote economic development in the countries defeated in that war, hate would increase, people would seek revenge and violence would resume. The Marshall Plan served to decrease animosity, to squelch the desire for revenge and to promote peace in Europe, a region where war had raged off and on for several hundred years.

While the United States and Western Europe have grown increasingly prosperous during the last decades of the twentieth century, many of the least developed countries in the world have become increasingly impoverished. Any “war” on terrorism must also be a “war” on poverty. We cannot expect peace to prevail in a world where the gap between the rich and poor countries continues to grow as it has recently.

Although anger is a natural response to the terrible events of September 11, at a university like our own, especially at a Catholic university like our own, we must do our best to resist letting the anger keep us from asking ourselves what lessons we might learn and how we might respond in a way that promotes true peace. While there is only so much we can do, let us dedicate ourselves to working for a more secure world by identifying and addressing the conditions that make terrorism more likely. While complete security is an illusion, it is possible that the world gradually become more secure if we attack the root causes rather than just the symptoms of terrorism. May God help us to do so.