Thoughts About September 11th

Hassan Yousufzai

It seems very clear that Pakistan is going to be the battleground for the war against terrorism. In the USA there is a traditional debate going on about the definition of America's relationship with the rest of the world, particularly the Muslim majority countries. This approach to conflict transformation/management is derived from the science of international relations, which gives absolute legitimacy to the concept of sovereignty and national interest of a nation state. This time, however, if the USA stays involved in the kind of debate that it is vigorously pursuing, the theory is not going to serve the concept of supreme national interest in any sense.

In the aftermath of the September eleventh emergency, the U.S. government didn't know what to do. The first action should have been to assess what went wrong and where, so that we would remain ready to avert further human tragedies. Secondly, the confidence of the nation needed to be restored by being proactive and composed. It has been a testing time for the people and the government of United States to express dignity and courage. We must not forget that we need to rise beyond anger and secure our future collectively.

Hassan Yousufzai is a Fulbright Scholar presently in CTP from Pakistan where he is a government field officer in the Northeast Frontier Province. He works closely with local NGOs, promoting human rights among minority populations.