They Already Won

The following are quotes taken from a Wikipedia article:

• On October 15, 2001, in justifying his decision to not postpone the Academy Awards, Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declared in an open letter to Reuters:
• "There may be modifications in the nature of the ceremonies if those are appropriate, but this show, just as it did throughout the great crisis of World War II, just asm it did during the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, will go on. As life goes on. The world will see an American tradition continue, and will take notice.
• "If we give in to fear, if we aren't able to do these simple and ordinary things, the terrorists have won the war."
• On October 30, 2001, Martha Stewart sent a letter proposing that the regular Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Christmas party be cancelled, and that co-workers be forced to have subsidized company parties at their house. When regular staffers found the request bizarre, she sent out a company memo chastizing them for their hesitance, using this meme:
• "This is a very, very special year, not just for MSO but for every company and person affected by the events of September 11. To me the terrorists have certainly succeeded if so few of you participate in a company-wide effort to 'get together.'"
• On November 4, 2001, Ellen DeGeneres hosted the Emmy Awards, which had been postponed twice that year for worries that a showy celebration would seem inappropriate in the wake of the attacks. To lighten the mood, she famously delivered the quip:
• "We're told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?"
• On November 25, 2001 British Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy argued against the imposition of liberty restricting laws in the UK, stating that:
• "Well the right to life and the right to the civil liberties that you and I enjoy as we speak, broadcasting our views, our opinions, asking questions and so on, that is fundamental and of course that must be defended... we have to get the balance right, that if we allow ourselves to get into a situation where in fact we are suppressing our own individual rights in the wake of these dreadful atrocities, actually the terrorist begins to win, and that's the balance that I don't think is properly judged by the government."
• On July 27, 2005, U.S. Western District Judge John Coughenour sentenced Ahmed Ressam to 22 years in prison. He released a statement leveraging the aging phrase, emphasizing the fair and balanced nature of the trial:
• "I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution... We can deal with the threats to our national security without denying the accused fundamental constitutional protections.
• Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effective, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens. Most importantly, all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel.
• The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism.
• Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."
• On July 7, 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on a state visit to the U.S., made a statement using the phrase in question. "I would just urge the Congress to think carefully, [for] if the fight for security ends up meaning the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won," Harper said.[1]



Gentle readers, I am sad to report something I am sure many of you have guessed at or even fully acknowledged to be true. The “terrorists” have already won. The answer to their winning is the same one my liberal brothers and sisters have sought in their most stinging criticisms of the Bush administration’s arrogant assumption that a “war on terror” has a definable outcome. They challenge Bush, as I have done many times in the past, to define what a victory for us in this war might actually mean or look like. What they, and I, have ignored for far too long is that the face of victory has already shown itself.

A war on ideology is an attempt to overwrite one set of beliefs with another. I have already spoken about the cult of Democracy our country is actively engaged in spreading. In a very real sense, Bush seeks to do what Osama bin Laden has already done, and far more effectively than anyone ever dreamed possible. The ostensible goal of the terrorist is to inspire terror. He (or she) seeks to instill fear, mistrust, and dissension. It is to that goal I now concede victory.

We are afraid. No, not just afraid but terrified. We see terrorists around every corner now. Every plane ride anyone goes on at this very second is immersed in almost palpable atmosphere of tension and suspicion.

My original intent for this article was to list the numerous instances of passengers or authority figures reacting irrationally to their fellow humans on baseless assumptions regarding appearance and behavior. I decided against that because the list is so long now and you have already read about them for yourself in the morning papers. Instead, I chose to remind us all of the conditions for victory we have already established and how easily those conditions were met by a few lonely and twisted individuals one sunny morning against a very different Manhattan skyline.

Further still, I name and damn members of our own government, on BOTH sides of the political spectrum for aiding and abetting the very victory against us they swore wouldn’t happen if we all just continued to remember. They hounded us with the fear given us by the “terrorists”, making us more afraid and more willing to stab each other in the back because someone looks a little too Muslim, a little too “ethnic” for our comfort.

Ladies and gentlemen, those men who took control of those planes never sought to be our masters. They merely wished to make us slaves to their own master, that of terror and hatred.


And...they...won.