"9/11" by Susan Sontag

1. Is the United States really to blame for what happened on September 11, 2001?
2. Why can we not know about certain acts of terrorism going on in the world?
3. If we are to blame, who exactly should be blamed and why?


What really caught my attention in this article was where Sontag says, "...America has brought this horror upon itself, that America itself is, in part, to blame for the deaths of these thousands upon it's own territory...." This got me to thinking that if we are to blame for what happened to New York on Septemeber 11, then does that mean that every attack by us on other countries can be blamed on those ccountries, not on us? I agree with Sontag when she says that putting the blame on America is morally obscene. I do not believe that we asked to have thousands of innocent people killed. The most logical people to blame for 9/11 are the ones who actually did it. There are other ways to proceed other than mass murder, that would only invite retaliation and just make things worse. Some people may argue that the U.S. government is to blame because they failed to keep their eye out on our enemies, however, I do not think that the U.S. government would kill thousands of its own people just to start a war. It is even said that Bush and Clinton knew that hijackers were likely to strike the U.S. but I believe that if they had any little clue that such an event would occur, they would have done everything in their power to prevent it from actually happening. I do believe that we could use some more security and look out on our enemies, but I do not think that the U.S. can be blamed for such an immoral attack.