9/11: The Crash of Civilizations

As an educated, inquisitive American citizen, I was intrigued by the recent publication of the 9/11 Commission Report. With its modest price tag, narrative composition and national political relevance, I quickly purchased the roughly 400 page report. Little did I know that the typically solitary act of reading a book would incite so much discourse with random strangers.

To accomplish my goal of completing the report in a timely manner I've been lugging it around with me wherever I go. On a recent trip into work downtown I was stopped on the sidewalk by a Taxi Cab driver parked on the street. I knew our conversation was going to be interesting when he asked me if I knew of the first country to recognize America's independence. Years of public education had not prepared me for such an innocuous question; of course I answered that I had no idea. I was informed that the country in question was indeed Morocco, the country of birth for this enlightened Taxi Cab driver. Did he stop me merely to prove the worthlessness of a liberal arts degree, to highlight the astounding foresight of his nation of birth, or perhaps even to browbeat me into taking on a cab fare? If any of these were true I would not have even taken the time to write this little vignette. This friendly cabbie had a lot of questions for me, which it turned out were merely rhetorical devices for dropping some science on my ignorant American ass.

He continued: Morocco recognized America's independence because it was a country based on the ideas of freedom and liberty; 9/11 happened because of the eventual corruption of these founding values. More specifically, these ideals had been corrupted because unsavory elements had been allowed to creep into our government and have a frightening amount of influence over its foreign policy. Now things were getting interesting. So who represented this devious faction? I was soon informed that it all hearkened back to WWII when THE JEWS wouldn't stop complaining about the holocaust. Next thing you know they're dictating foreign policy in regards to Israel and Palestine, perverting the high-minded ideals of America and causing ardent jihadists to crash jumbo jets into skyscrapers just to prove a point.

Before I could get a chance to question his evidence based on his seeming anti-semiticism, he quickly interjected that he was the quintessential internationalist (he spoke five languages), and loved America and its ideals (that whole freedom and liberty thing). He also noted that he didn't believe all Jews were in the wrong, because there were three type of Jews: the dark-skinned people who currently lived in Ethiopia, another type that wanted peace in Israel/Palestine and finally the Zionists who basically want to control all of Israel/Palestine and will accomplish this goal by any means (specifically dictating America's foreign policy, controlling the media, etc.)

Obviously I wasn't completely sold on his theory based on this evidence, but there really wasn't any point in me making any objections, I was the one being schooled. After a few more friendly interchanges, I thanked him for the history lesson and went on my merry way to work.

If you read the 9/11 commission report, are stopped by a bombastic transplanted Moroccan or happen to understand Arabic and watch al-Jazeera you'll know that many people in the Muslim world have a large chip on their shoulder concerning Jews and Palestine. Although his ideas on the hidden hand of Jewish influence in American policy is a bit laughable, the cab driver was decidedly correct in correlating the events of 9/11 to Israel and its continued support by the U.S. The current issue of how to create a more effective intelligence structure, though important, seems to ignore the deeper issue of the daily clash of cultures currently experienced by large portions of the Muslim and Western worlds.