9/11: Winners and Losers

The World Trade Center bombings on 9/11 were a shocking and terrible event. Nearly three thousand people lost their lives, tens of thousands lost their loved ones, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs, and all of us lost our sense of personal and national security.

Yet, four years later, we see that there were both winners and losers in the tragedy of 9/11. Who are the winners? Not just the radical Muslim extremists. There are many winners right here in the United States.

For totalitarians who believe that the government should have unlimited powers in surveillance and intimidation of its citizens, the Patriot Act took care of those pesky civil liberties that we enjoy. The government now has the right to conduct secret searches, based on secret search warrants issued by secret courts. The government can now arrest American citizens and hold them in jail without filing criminal charges. It can suspend the right of habeas corpus. If these procedures are too cumbersome, it can simply authorize its military to conduct wiretaps without benefit of a warrant. Winner: the government; Loser: American citizens.

Defense contractors have, perhaps, been the biggest winners. The government has pulled out the national credit cards and borrowed nearly $400 billion to award contracts for everything from new Humvees to phony news stories. Many of these contracts were awarded without competitive bids. We see no evidence that these mega-corporations such as Halliburton have reduced their profit margin to contribute to the public good. Winner: defense contractors; Loser: American citizens.

Of course, defense contractors are not the only corporations to benefit. Over the past two decades, oil companies have fought for the right to tap publicly-owned oil deposits in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. They have long been denied the bonus of exploiting this last domestic oil field in the country, a public asset that should be held in reserve for national security. They have also been denied the opportunity to place our natural heritage at risk by conducting new offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. No longer. In the name of national security, oil companies will be allowed to drill the last oil reserves controlled by the United States and endanger the environment. Winner: Big Oil; Loser: American citizens.

Among the most politically influential corporations in our country is the pharmaceutical industry. (Just check on their payments to lobbyists and their contributions to politicians’ campaign committees, PACs and favorite charities.) Raising fears of anthrax attacks and bio-terrorism, a new law under consideration exempts pharmaceuticals from virtually any lawsuits arising from vaccines, despite the fact that we already have a reasonable law protecting these companies from any claims except those involving gross negligence. Winner: Pharmaceuticals; Loser: American citizens.

Certainly, the United States needed to take actions in response to 9/11. But, is it sheer coincidence that in response to this tragedy we have awarded billions of dollars to big business and greater power to big government? Most people in our country would not take advantage of others as they experienced a personal tragedy. Unfortunately, some will take any opportunity to increase their wealth or advance their own agenda.