9-11 – mackaycartoons

Saturday September 11, 2021

September 18, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 11, 2021

The 20th anniversary of 9/11: no end in sight

Wednesday September 12, 2001

A new and deadly era began when the planes sliced into the twin towers on the morning of 11 September 2001. That evening, the historian Tony Judt wrote that he had seen the 21st century begin. The nearly 3,000 lives stolen by al-Qaida were only a small part of the toll. The horror began a chain of events that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including huge numbers of civilians abroad and many US military personnel. It is still unfolding.

If the killing of the plot’s mastermind Osama bin Laden a few months before the 10th anniversary perhaps let some hope that an end to that new era might be in sight, there can be no such false confidence at the 20th. The establishment of a Taliban government in Kabul, two decades after the US ousted the militants for harbouring Bin Laden, has underscored two things: that far from reasserting its global supremacy, the US looks more vulnerable today; and that the echoes of 9/11 are still reverberating across the region – but will not stay there.

September 11, 2006

Al-Qaida itself survives and others claim its mantle. In the west, the threat from Islamist terrorism endures – from 7/7 and the Madrid train bombings, to the attacks at Manchester Arena, the Berlin Christmas market and Vienna – though the nature of the threat has shifted, from a heavily financed, complex and internationally organised plot to more localised, less sophisticated attacks. This week, 20 men went on trial over the 2015 massacre at the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris. Ken McCallum, MI5’s chief, said on Friday that the agency had prevented six “late stage” terrorist plots during the pandemic, and that with the Taliban’s triumph, “more risk progressively may flow our way”.

The determination to pursue a military solution fed the political problems, as history should have warned. (A Rand Corporation study of 248 terrorist groups worldwide suggested that only 7% were ended by military force.)

September 11, 2011

In Afghanistan, the refusal to accept a Taliban surrender paved the way for America’s longest war and ultimate acceptance of defeat. Islamic State arose from the ashes of the invasion of Iraq. Extraordinary renditions, torture, the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and the unwillingness to acknowledge or atone for civilian deaths at the hands of US forces or their allies all stoked the fire. These abuses and crimes were not anomalies but intrinsic to the war on terror. Men swept up in the aftermath are still held at Guantánamo Bay.

Around the world, basic rights were erased at home too. The US saw a massive expansion of presidential power; the veneration of secrecy; the destruction of norms; the normalisation of Islamophobia; the promotion of a narrative linking immigration and terrorism, breeding broader intolerance; and the encouragement of the belief that ordinary citizens were in a state of war. It is not hard to draw the line to the rise of Donald Trump and white supremacy, or rightwing populism elsewhere. In the US, far-right terror groups were behind most attacks last year; in the UK, police have said that the fastest growing terror threat is from the far right. The biggest perils to the US now appear not external but internal. The future of a divided and distrustful country looks increasingly precarious, its status in the world weakened.

August 18, 2021

Whatever many in the country once believed, American citizens cannot be isolated from the dangers of the outside world; trouble is not “always someplace else”. On 9/11, the country transitioned from a dream of unending tranquility at home to a nightmare of forever war. With the return of soldiers from Afghanistan, the US is more distanced from the enemy. But the conflict continues by other means, and without boots on the ground, drone strikes are more likely than ever to claim the lives of civilians as well as terrorist suspects. The US, and the west, cannot be safe at home while insecurity reigns abroad. (The Guardian)

Thursday December 1, 2016

December 1, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 1, 2016

The world according to Trump, and the peril of isolationism

We have yet to see the shape of Donald Trump’s foreign policy. But as we wait, so do nervous leaders across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. With his arrival in the Oval Office, American alliances and policies forged over decades may well be in play. Meanwhile, in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin smiles at the election outcome. Hmm.

That would be worrisome enough if the U.S. role in geopolitics would start from scratch on Inauguration Day. It won’t. President Barack Obama already has reduced America’s global involvement and influence. That backward lean is a key reason why Trump will inherit so many foreign policy predicaments.

An America that on his watch slips further to the sidelines, an insular America that regards trouble on the other side of the world as someone else’s problem, would risk eroding diplomatic partnerships and defense pacts. That would imperil American interests overseas and at home: Conflicts elsewhere often make themselves felt here. Witness the Islamic State-inspired attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. Or remember 9/11. (Continued: Chicago Tribune Editorial)

This cartoon was colourized from the same image published on September 13, 2001.

Marvellous Maps

Wednesday April 20, 2016

April 19, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 20, 2016

Trump commends first responders to ‘7-Eleven’ attacks

Donald Trump made an awkward slip of the tongue at a rally in Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday evening, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as “7-Eleven.”

Wednesday February 10, 2016

“I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down on 7-Eleven, down at the World Trade Center [in New York City], right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I have ever seen in action,” said the businessman, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

The 2001 attacks on Manhattan and the Pentagon are commonly referred to as 9/11. The convenience store chain 7-Eleven is known for its Slurpee frozen drinks.

Trump was apparently oblivious to the fact he’d conflated the two.

He was speaking to thousands of supporters at a rally held ahead of the New York primaries on Tuesday.

The video was shared widely on social media, including as a Vine with nearly four million loops. (Source: CBC News)

Social media

Sunday September 11, 2011

September 11, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Sunday September 11, 2011

9-11 10 Years Later

September 11, 2006

For all the journalistic firepower gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Sunday, the small moments captured by cameras resonated most deeply.

A 21-year-old boy regretted that his father wasn’t there to help him learn how to drive a car. Young hands grasped at a name etched in a memorial as if they could touch the person himself. A young woman asked a mother no longer there if she is proud of her family.

Live coverage of somber ceremonies memorializing the attack’s victims dominated television networks on Sunday, the climax of two weeks of attention paid to the historical marker. Newspapers published special sections and websites offered their own content — Yahoo even observing a digital moment of silence.

The War on Terror Gallery

The television coverage was centered on the annual memorial service at New York’s World Trade Center. CNN kept a timeline, occasionally flashing mileposts of what happened 10 years ago at their precise moments: as former President George W. Bush read a letter from Abraham Lincoln to the mother of five men killed in the Civil War, the screen noted that exactly 10 years ago Bush’s chief of staff was whispering to his boss that “America is under attack.”

“The images still shock, the heartbreak still hurts,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said as the network showed pictures from 2001.

Sunday’s coverage offered dozens of heart-rending moments, perhaps none more so than when Peter Negron, 21, recalled his father Pete, a project manager for environmental issues for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who died at the World Trade Center. He noted that he tried to teach his brother, aged 2 when their father died, things like throwing a baseball that dad had showed him. He regretted that his father wasn’t there to teach him how to drive, or ask a girl out on a date. (Associated Press)

Monday, September 11, 2006

September 11, 2006 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, September 11, 2006

Five years after 9/11: a shifted view of the world

Old allies have become wary of one another, if not openly suspicious. Sensing inattention, small rogue nations may have decided it is time to make trouble. Two wars have begun, and their ends do not yet appear in sight. Less noticed, a quiet empire continues to rise in the East.

Wednesday September 12, 2001

The world today is a very different place from the way it was on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

In one sense that statement is obvious. Five years is a long time in geopolitics. The world turns, whatever terrorists do.

But half a decade on, it also seems clear that Al Qaeda’s attacks and the US response have helped move the metaphorical tectonic plates of the globe.

Besides direct effects, such as the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the reverberations from 9/11 may include a new general organizing principle for international affairs.

The cold war was about the Western and communist blocs, and their values, conflicts, and internal cracks. The current period is about the US and the Islamic world – their mutual suspicions and occasional cooperation, and the wedge Al Qaeda has tried to drive between them. (CSMonitor)

“In the five years since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center when hijackers flew two planes into the twin towers, killing more than 2,700 people New York has made a stirring recovery. Lower Manhattan shows signs of economic renewal and is once again a trendy place to dine; real estate values citywide have soared; the stock market has strengthened; new construction is booming; the overall crime rate is down; ticket sales on Broadway have hit an all-time high; and tourists are flooding the city in record numbers.” The Los Angeles Times

Quite optimistic sounding, but the article actually pertains to how anxiety ridden New Yorkers are 5 years after the attack. The excerpt above stuck out when I read it since it goes against the daily mantra that things will never return to the nice and carefree days before September 11, 2001, and that in order to exist in this day and age we have to live in fear while always looking behind our backs.

Has 9/11 really changed the world as much as we’ve been led to believe? Are we cowering in our basements waiting for the next terrorist attack to occur? Have our liberties been curtailed that much by paraniod governments? Have our economies crumbled in the aftermath of September 11th? I suppose if we’re connected to anyone who was killed in the 9/11 attacks life did change for some. Those of the Islamic faith must feel the impact and inconvenience everytime they pass through airport security. While there were economic consequences which put airlines out of business and put a dent in travel immediately after 9/11 our day to day activities really didn’t change at all.

We still eat out at restaurants, fill our gas tanks with ridiculously priced fuel and we still do all the normal daily things we did 5 years and a day ago. The attack on America was a huge event and its memories will always remain with us for years to come. Are we feeling as fearful as critics are suggesting we are as something orchestrated by the Bush administration? I don’t think so.

There’s an excerpt of Michael Moore’s movie Bowling for Columbine (and you know how much I love Michael Moore) which I think is very nice observation. Its examination of America’s culture of fear as a root cause of gun violence also extends to the higher levels of office. America’s need to have something to be scared of has essentially been the bedrock of its strength since its earliest colonial days. Michael Moore gives an entertaining chronicle of things which have scared the bejezus out of Americans for the past 230 years.

I don’t think it’s just an American thing. Most countries need to fear something in order to keep itself together. Canada has feared the U.S. in the past and continues to do so today. Not too long ago, we were shaking alongside the U.S. and the so called “free world” waiting for the day we’d all be annihilated by Soviet nuclear weapons in the 1980’s. My 9/11 occured in the 5th grade when my music teacher decided to reveal the existence of nuclear weapons pointed at every city in North America. It was the early 1980’s, and that revelation alone freaked me out for years.

No doubt a lot of fifth graders became freaked out 5 years ago today. But like my own introduction to fear of nukes everyone from every generation enters the culture of fear sometime in their lives. 9/11, as horrible and surreal as the film footage and images freaks us all out is just another moment of collosal human tragedy and fear which is repeated over and over and over through the centuries. Something is bound to push the events of 9/11 from our collective memory. Maybe that’s what’s so worrisome. (Random Thots Blog)