Seven Years Later

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – Outside the media operations center this morning, four Afghan workers on the base stared exhaustedly at a few large pieces of lumber, arranging the wood to form the basis for what appeared to be a roof. One of the men knelt over the arrangement and took a DeWalt circular saw to it — creating new angles and appropriate sizes. He sawed as his comrades braced and hammered.

None of the construction workers displayed any bewilderment over the fact that, seven years ago, the thought of working for Americans in this remote outpost in Khost Province would have been absurd, while today the U.S. appears to be an enduring fixture on the Afghan landscape.

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks retain a totemic quality even seven years out.

It’s hard to know what the rules are, socially speaking, to refer to them. The right-wing in U.S. politics has used the attacks as a cudgel from the start — Rudy Giuliani, 9/11′s equivalent of an ambulance chaser, lambasted the Democrats at the Republican National Convention for insufficient invocation of Sept. 11 -– while pursuing policies that leave the country more, not less, vulnerable to follow-on assaults.

Whether through cynicism or self-delusion, the Bush administration used 9/11 to invade a country that had nothing to do with the attacks and neglected the war in the place that did. Like much of the culture, the left is still coming to grips with what’s tonally appropriate now that the era of 9/11-hysteria has passed. Lots of people make consciously inappropriate jokes about 9/11, but most do so surreptitiously. The country is still not ready for 9/11 comedy.

This place is no exception. It’s hard to strike the right tone, even with an open display of solemnity.

Tonight, for example, the military contractor KBR prepared a special 9/11 menu at the dining facility — smoked turkey, baked ham and soft-serve ice cream. What could be more 9/11 than that?

At 6 p.m., there was a base-wide commemoration of the attacks that brought the U.S. into Afghanistan in the first place. Col. John P. Johnson, commander of Task Force Currahee, gave a short but eloquent reflection on the anniversary, pointing to the dozens of soldiers in attendance outside Salerno’s Tactical Operations Center as evidence of the country’s resolve against terrorism.

Some questions still aren’t easily answered, even seven years on. What’s mawkish? What’s commemorative? What’s responsible? What’s respectful? Should there be a ceremony on the anniversary of the attacks each year, or should the attacks fade into the cultural background — like Pearl Harbor, or Antietam, or any number of other atrocities the U.S. has experienced?

Where is the balance between overreaction and neglect?