25 years after 9/11, war is still not the answer

(RNS) — I was 27 years old, living in New York City and early in my career as a Quaker peace advocate, when the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, shook our country and the world. Days later, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) — where I began my career and which I now run — issued a statement mourning the thousands of lives lost and calling for those responsible to be brought to justice through the rule of law.

FCNL also warned against backlash targeting innocent Muslim and Middle Eastern communities and urged the U.S. government not to “commit the same sin by compounding the hatred, violence, and injustice of these attacks with its own acts of terror and war against another people.” Even amid profound national grief and uncertainty, FCNL offered a clear and steadfast witness: “War is not the answer.”

Sadly, many of the concerns we raised after 9/11 became reality — and then became normalized through the Global War on Terror. While the U.S. has a long history of military interventions abroad and racialized oppression at home, our government’s response to 9/11 ushered in decades of endless war and entrenched discrimination, codified through the 2001 and 2002…