 |
|
     |
|
|
In the week following September 11, we asked a number of Berkeley faculty members for their reflections. Included are an Afghan national, a political scientist, the chair of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, a national security expert, a Palestinian-American historian, and the chair of Peace and Conflict Studies. Jack Glaser Assistant professor, Goldman School of Public Policy I will never forget the overwhelming emotions I felt on the morning of September 11: shock, grief, fear, dismay, despair, intense sadness. The thought of suffering and death on such a massive scale, and the magnitude of malevolence required to bring it about, were—are—beyond comprehension. As a social psychologist who studies stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and hate crime, I feared that the tragedy would be compounded if the safety of Arab Americans was in jeopardy. Yet, I was impressed in the days that followed at the thoughtfulness, tolerance, and restraint shown by American citizens and political leaders. Interestingly, some of that restraint may have been engendered by those very negative emotions many of us felt. Specifically, sadness is known to lead to more careful and deliberative thought. People who are sad are less likely to use stereotypes in judging others. The phenomenon has been termed “sadder but wiser.” We should keep in mind that we have the tendency to overestimate the homogeneity of groups to which we do not belong (“They’re all alike”). In reality, all groups (ethnic, racial, gender, political, etc.) have tremendous diversity; extremists are, by definition, not representative. The likelihood that an Arab American you see on the street is a homicidal fundamentalist extremist is as miniscule as the likelihood that a White person you encounter is a homicidal neo-Nazi. As I write this, only days after September 11, I do not know how Americans will react, either emotionally or politically. I hope that in the weeks and months and years to come we will resist the temptation to yield to anger, fear, and impulse in dealing with a minority that shares certain characteristics with an enemy. History has judged very harshly those who have not shown such restraint. Beshara Doumani Associate professor of history, currently on sabbatical as a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin What a difference three hours can make: Suddenly, we live in a new world where there is no safe distance, a world where forces beyond our control can cause untold misery and destruction. Sadly, this kind of world is one that the majority of people on this planet have been enduring for far too long, largely as a result of the single-minded pursuit of power and profit by imperial nations, multinational corporations, and their allied regimes. There is no denying, for example, that oil was the primary consideration behind decisions by the United States to establish a massive military presence in the very heart of the Islamic world, to fight the Gulf War, and to impose suffocating sanctions on the people of Iraq. But it is also true that nothing, nothing whatsoever, can justify the carnage, the calculated disregard for human life, and the murder of the innocent that took place in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The perpetrators—who must be punished for their crimes and politically isolated so that they can find no shelter under the sun—may take advantage of global inequalities for recruitment purposes, but they are not fighting for justice on behalf of the oppressed. Rather, they aim to drag the United States into a political theater, participation in which is tantamount to accepting a monochromatic vision of the world. I am truly frightened by the possibility that President Bush will swallow the bait and unleash a series of ill-conceived military, economic, and political actions that could alienate entire populations and dramatically curtail civil liberties at home, while doing little in the long run to prevent new acts of terror. Let us demand justice, not revenge; and let us think about what we are fighting for, not just what we are fighting against. Otherwise, our children might become innocent victims in a world increasingly polarized between the Good Civilized Us and the Evil Barbarian Them. Michael Nacht. Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, served in the Clinton Administration as an expert on nuclear arms control and missile defense The terrorist attacks on September 11 constitute the gravest threat to the security of the United States since World War II. The network of Islamic extremists who carried out these acts is interested not only in killing several thousand Americans and striking fear into the nation. By their language and deeds they are also seeking to: 1) Overthrow all Muslim regimes and replace them with adherents to their particular views. In the process they would gain control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, and more than half of the world’s oil supply. 2) Drive all U.S. and Western influence out of the Middle East and Persian Gulf states. 3) Destroy Israel. 4) Then, bring the U.S. and the West to its knees, killing as many Americans and Jews as possible. 5) And, finally, spread their virulent ideas so that they are the dominant world view, destroying all notions of liberal democracy and capitalism in the process. To achieve their goals they will use all weapons at their disposal—including nuclear, chemical, and biological—to inflict maximum damage. Because they are motivated by a deeply held religious/ideological view, in which martyrdom is the supreme status, they are willing to die to achieve their goals. Therefore, deterrence—the conveying of a credible threat to dissuade action, which was the cornerstone of U.S. national security thinking for five decades—is irrelevant. These terrorists cannot be deterred. The U.S. must respond with a prudent mixture of military, political, diplomatic, and economic measures that isolates and then destroys these terrorists and their supporters without radicalizing the Muslim world; to do otherwise would play directly into their hands. This complex and long-term task will tax the patience and endurance of the American people like no challenge before. Domestic and international cohesion will be essential for the United States to prevail. Wali Ahmadi Assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies Like countless others, I was shocked and greatly saddened by the atrocities committed on September 11. I was born and raised in Kabul and, now that all signs point to an imminent assault on Afghanistan, I also feel really bad for the ordinary people in my country of birth; they have gone through such a difficult time in recent decades. They have endured the Soviet-imposed war, the subsequent factional struggles, and the current civil war between the Taliban and their foes, who are positioned mainly in the northern part of the country. It should be emphasized that the Taliban do not represent Afghanistan. The Taliban emerged as a narco-terrorist militia organization in Pakistan and, through extensive military and political backing by Pakistani intelligence services, succeeded in toppling Afghanistan’s fragile factional government in 1996. Ever since, they have held the Afghan nation hostage. While Osama bin Laden is a major problem for the U.S., the Taliban are the real threat to regional stability and to the future of Afghanistan as a nation. Many people in Afghanistan would not shed a tear if they were relieved of the yoke of the Taliban monstrosity, as long as ordinary Afghans are not slaughtered in the process. U.S. foreign policy in the past has been to root out a problem without much effort to eliminate the context that gave rise to the problem in the first place. Let’s hope that if the U.S. engages in war with the Taliban, it also thinks of the fallout. The Afghans should be helped and assisted afterwards so that future Osamas do not rise again. That will only happen if the Pakistani intelligence, in concert with fundamentalist groups inside Pakistan, stops supporting Taliban-like movements and making the region a hotbed for extremism. Nezar AlSayyad Professor of architecture and planning, and Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies I refuse to read the attack on the twin towers as a meaningful protest against America, against globalization, or against our role in it. It was not. Those individuals who perpetrated this horrible atrocity have a fundamental ignorance of America and of the global landscape. Their intolerance and their fanatical belief in a single invented truth remain the only rationale for their action. The new global realities demand of us to be intolerant of intolerance itself. The failure of a few countries and peoples around the world to understand this need has allowed a climate in which 19 maniacal individuals managed to hold the entire world hostage to their will, even after their deaths. Recovery in all of its forms will be hard and long. Neither the expedience of blame nor the politics of justification are appropriate at this moment. We must proceed with the conviction that one form of violence does not justify another. The burden of recent histories in our country should also make us wary of the rhetoric of winning, revenge, and “infinite justice.” We must rally around America without ever forgetting that such rallying has often in the recent past produced the most “un-American” forms of behavior. The challenge that we face today is how to deal effectively with the origins and elements of hate and terror without compromising our hard-earned civil liberties. We must remember that it is precisely in times of crisis that we need to hold on to these liberties the most. Jack Citrin Ph.D. ’70, Professor of political science So much for the End of History and the New World Order. It seems that every generation of Americans has to grow out of utopian blindness and painfully absorb some eternal verities. There is a business cycle. Clashing civilizations do not live together happily ever after. Life without risk or sacrifice is an illusion. Chancellor Tien liked to say that crisis brings opportunity. My hope is that Berkeley students will learn that a diverse America must embrace a civic nationalism founded on a commitment to common values and political principles. September 11 shows what the cult of ethnicity and victimhood can bring. The mindless relativism espoused by the postmodernists in the academy ends in a moral abyss where anything goes, but nothing matters. Yet when tragedies such as the attacks on New York and Washington occur, one cannot hold the stick at both ends. One must choose without buts between humanity and terror, between the Enlightenment and barbarism. Michael Nagler M.A. ’62, Ph.D. ’66,Professor emeritus of classics and comparative literature, and founder and chair of Peace and Conflict Studies. In my forty-plus years of teaching and/or activism at Berkeley, I have never seen such an inspiring response as the one our students have made to the shocking disaster of September 11. The controlled passion, the determination, seem to have taken us light-years beyond the rancor and polarization that have sometimes made student activism ineffectual over the last few decades. In this, we have been, once again, the reflection back to the nation of an important voice which is often ignored in the search for unanimity in the mainstream and its media. What is that voice saying? If we resort to bombs in our “war against terrorism” we will be little better, and certainly no more effectual, than the terrorists who inflicted this blow on us. Violence begets violence: That is a lesson this country has to learn. This is a time for soul-searching, for frank evaluation of our policies in the Middle East and of the all-pervasive culture of violence that makes those policies acceptable. It is a time to learn once and for all that, when you dehumanize your opponent, you make reconciliation impossible and condemn yourself to a world of hostility and anguish. If we learn this, a great renewal may come out of the ashes of New York and Virginia. Among many journalists who spoke with me the week after September 11 was a woman from the L.A. Times. When I asked her if she was getting the material for her story, she said: “Am I! Berkeley students are so articulate, it’s awesome.” Let us hope that this voice of reason will be heard all over America, and that it prevails.  Return to Top |
| |||||||
| About
CAA Contact
Us
Update
your Address CAA Career Opportunities Privacy Policy |
©2009 California Alumni
Association. All Rights Reserved For questions about CAA: info@alumni.berkeley.edu Technical inquiries: web@alumni.berkeley.edu
|
Alumni House Berkeley, CA 94720-7520 Toll-Free: (888) CAL-ALUM Phone: (510) 642-7026 Fax: (510) 642-6252
|
