An Opportunity Missed

9/11 is an event that still needs to be examined for its nature and reason, free from any biases. Also the roots of this attack must be analyzed from political and ideological aspects.

I was in Germany near the city of Cologne on 11the of September, 2001 when I was called by phone and learned about the happening. I turned on the TV and saw that the first airplane struck one of the towers. The Twin Towers had a special majesty and they were the symbols of New York City.

The first airplane had hit the towers. We were talking and watching the TV and the sentence America in War was repeatedly captioned on the screen. They said that an airplane has hit Pentagon. While talking I saw that the second airplane hit the second tower of World Trade Center. There was a fourth airplane flying towards White House which had whether fallen down or targeted by a missile.

Meanwhile the United States government stated that George Bush has been moved to an unknown location. It was an extra-ordinary event and we face a new surprise every moment. I remember talking to Edward Said. His initial reaction to this attack was this sentence: the world entered a new civilization today. I made a contact with Foreign Ministry at those minutes. Mr. Amin Zadeh, Deputy Foreign Minister had formed a crisis roomA. I talked to him on the phone and he told me that in a few hours Mr. Khatami will express his stance. Also the Foreign Minister, who was flying towards Tehran from Germany cleared Iran of all charges as soon as he arrived at the airport.

I witnessed a huge gap between the Muslim World and United States at those days. I predicted bitter and worrisome events and I felt Americans will attack different places in the Muslim World to satisfy their own public opinion. I saw the catastrophe in the gap that was widening increasingly and the following events confirmed my prediction. I had contact with many different people such as Dr. Hosein Nasr who were all in a shock.

What was really interesting for me was the mentality of Europeans and Germans. Since they hadn’t understood the seriousness of the disaster, they had a kind of sprightly indifference along with questions. This continued until the depth of the disaster was revealed and that was when Americans managed to hold a historic funeral and manipulate the public opinion of the Western society.

In other words, the public opinion of the Western society hadn’t become aware of the seriousness of the disaster in the early days, but gradually it was revealed to the Western society and the gap became wider and wider. The stance of intellectuals who tried to bridge the gap between Islam and West –United States- in the first days was marginalized step by step.

The United States government was inexperienced. Bush was frightened and in general, 3 important things happened:

1. The United States’ political system settled itself and managed the crisis. American politicians united in Washington’s Cathedral and raised the sympathy of the world. Bush was supported, although he endured the legitimacy crisis after his controversial competition with El Gore.
2. A new round of Islamophobia was triggered.
3. Arabs lost their credibility in United States. Even Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of New York refused to meet Amir Abdullah, then the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and rejected his donation. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt had become the main targets of America.

Israelis spoke against Arabs and Iran. Musharref and Saudi Arabia were scared and searched for a place to hide. Also the public opinion of United States was against them. Different intellectual schools of United States put aside their disagreements and allied in war against terrorism and Al-Qaeda.

For the second time after WWII United States was attacked in its own land. The first time was by the terrorist group of Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) Omar Abdurrahman who is now a member of Ikhvan-ul-Muslemin (The Muslim Brotherhood) and in United States’ captivity.

The second one was 11^th of September that struck the American government. Never in its history had America been the target of a terrorist attack in its own territory and this was their first experience. Mr. Khatami released a statement and Iran’s leadership, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke against Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda two days later. He stated that the victims were innocent people and this attack shouldn’t have happened.

Iranian officials had no disagreement in condemning this attack and the Parliament took a lead in this course. Iran and United States became through this event. As a result, Taliban were pinned down in Afghanistan.

I think that 11^th, 13^th and 22^nd of September were the days that converged Iran and United States.

Iranian military, intelligence and operational forces helped the Americans and the two countries became closer. But within these months 2 lobbies and a country misled United States.

Arabs and Israelis feared the convergence of Iran and United States. Arabs, who were targets themselves, hid behind Iran and on 28^th of January George Bush made his strategic mistake by calling Iran a member of the Axis of Evil.

The Arab Lobby led by Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador at that time, and the Israeli Lobby lead by AIPAC became highly active. Besides these two lobbies, the intelligence service of Pakistan (ISS) provided the American counterpart with fabricated information in their war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda. That led to Americans’ misinterpretation and their rejection of Iran.

Iran was one of the first countries which sympathized with United States. Both countries found out that Al-Qaeda and Taliban is their common enemy and both countries had common interests in the region. But Americans missed this opportunity. If they were keen on war against terrorism they could have achievements through co-operation with Iran, considering the conditions of those days.

Khatami’s government accompanied United States in war against terrorism and that was actually proved in the case of Afghanistan. Americans were the ones who broke the rules and cornered Khatami’s government by calling Iran a member of the Axis of Evil. They sent Iran this message that they are never trustworthy.