One of the criticisms frequently lobbed at liberals is that they don't care about September 11th, or must not remember. It's lobbed when people oppose US foreign policy of going into the Middle East with a big stick and batting the hornets' nest around. Those who protest this method of diplomacy are termed appeasers. People bring up Neville Chamberlain and Hitler. My question is... is this line of criticism at all justified?

My answer would be that no, it isn't. Of course that would be my answer, but please hear me out.

Of course it's a different criticism that we don't care about September 11th as opposed to we're appeasers, or would be appeasers. But these critcisms very frequently go together. There's also the "member of the Blame America First crowd." These attacks all come under the umbrella of attacks on the patriotism of the target. And by the way, who blamed America first? Was it the Chomskyites, or was it Fred Phelps, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson?

On the morning of September 11th, I walked into the main room of my Printmaking studio at art school to find people huddled around the television set. It was a moment I felt the world change. I was terrified. I knew things would be forever different. And i really feel that they have been. There were teachers who said that in the long run, this was a good thing, that it had spurred America awake, and she would again be vital. I don't feel that this has come to pass.

What has happened is that the issue of bringing to justice those responsible for 9/11, apart from those who incinerated themselves in the incident, has been milked so horrifically and tastelessly by the Bush White House that it does not, at all, resemble the original issue. Saddam Hussein has nothing to do with September 11th. Saddam did not send the anthrax letters. Saddam is/was an evil dictator responible for ruining or ending the lives of millions, but he has nothing to do with September 11th. My personal opposition to the Iraq war had a lot to do with this fact, that, although the secular autocrat had nothing to do with that tragic day, that's how the war was sold to us. And I cannot support a war that is justified with cynical lies.

Does that make me an appeaser? No. it makes me someone who doesn't like being lied to. It makes me someone who actually does care about September 11th. I want al Qaeda stopped. I remember Osama bin Laden and I think that any policy my government has concerning terrorism should start with him, with his network, and making sure that the foundation of their support disappears.

There are better ways of going about that than humiliating and invading a totally unrelated country. Flexing our muscles in front of an Arab audience may be cathartic for the Darryl Worleys among us, but it gets us nowhere. The sooner we realize that, and the sooner we demand honesty from our President, the better of we will be.