Ten Years Is Too Long

By Sandy Robson on 09/01/2011 @ 04:36 PM

Tags: , Afghanistan, September 11

I was in my 10th grade chemistry class when we heard that a plane had crashed into the world trade center, and we all saw the towers fall on television. A few weeks later the US invaded Afghanistan. Now I’m 25 and I work at FCNL.

I’ve been asked what it means to have grown up during the war on terror. The question for me is rather “What was it like when there wasn’t a war on terror? Is this really that different?” In 2001 I was just beginning to take an interest in politics, and certainly the 9/11 tragedy only encouraged me to cannonball into the deep end.

Feeling my arms grow weary from holding signs at protest after protest, like many others my high-school activism was more about finding my political identity than it was an informed critique of American foreign policy. I developed a knee-jerk mistrust of the political process that I’ve been picking apart piece by piece ever since, verifying truth and un-learning assumptions for years. Gradually, determining what’s true and what’s effective became more important to me than wearing the right colors. Is this any different from generations before?

I did lose one friend to the war in Afghanistan. I fear editorializing his death or ascribing any meaning to it that he wouldn’t have claimed as his own. What I remember is that in the weeks after he died, the context of the US’s involvement in Afghanistan was too abstract, complicated, and distant for me to think about with any coherence. Years later it feels unnatural to connect the two. I've often wondered if the fact that there were so many more American casualties during Vietnam multiplied this confusion, or if it brought greater clarity as the war wore on. During the Cold War people had the threat of nuclear attacks in the backs of their minds. It seems that baby boomers have plenty of experience to share with my cohort. Many things may have changed, but this is still true: with time comes understanding, and ten years of US military presence in Afghanistan is just too long.