A Just Response

Katrina vanden Heuvel and Jonathan Schell
January 2002     ISBN: 1560254009

"On Tuesday morning, a piece was torn out of our world. A patch of blue sky that should not have been there opened up in the New York skyline. In my neighborhood--I live eight blocks from the World Trade Center--the heavens were raining human beings. Our city was changed forever. Our country was changed forever. Our world was changed forever." So wrote Jonathan Schell in the first issue of The Nation magazine following September 11, 2001.

Some of the most respected figures on the progressive left, in a series of thoughtful, informed and provocative essays, began to analyze the causes and consequences of this new American wound, and spoke out against "fascism with an Islamic face," jingoism, the undermining of civil rights, phony multilateralism, the confusion between dissent and treason, and articulated a vision of a just response to terrorism.

Others reflected on Osama bin Laden, the concept of "blowback," modern technological society turned unwittingly against itself, the American right wing's exploitation of a national emergency to further its political agenda, theology versus technology, the futility of space weapons to defend against apocalyptic nihilism, and secular versus fundamentalist Islam. The magazine published dispatches from other countries around the world, and brief background histories of bin Laden's origins, the roots of fundamentalism, asymmetrical warfare and a press watch.

These selected articles from issues of The Nation, and other sources, are now brought together in book form to counter the bombast and jingoism of so much media coverage since September 11 while providing informed analysis, provocative commentary and reasoned debates.

"Since September 11, the mainstream media, for the most part, has shied away from criticizing or disagreeing with the governmental response to the terrorist attacks. Moreover, any connections between U.S. foreign policy and the upsurge of radical Islam have been minimized or ignored. A refreshing exception to the media whitewash has been The Nation, a progressive magazine traditionally committed to providing a forum for left-leaning intelligentsia. Included in this important collection of essays, articles, and editorials published in The Nation since September 11 are contributions that address issues pertaining to First Amendment rights, civil liberties, social justice, disarmament, international law, and world opinion within the context of the current war on terrorism. Although many might disagree with the unpopular conclusions drawn by some of the authors, few would dispute the fact that they provide a reasoned balance to right-wing jingoism."
--Margaret Flanagan, Booklist

"The writers and editors of The Nation pull no punches in assailing both the Bush administration and the media for what they deem to be a dangerous and unnecessary overreaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks. From columnist Katha Pollitt's diatribe against the American flag (according to her, 'The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance') To author Chalmers Johnson's evocation of the 1950s CIA term 'blowback' to try to illustrate how what Johnson sees as America's corrupt foreign policies brought about September 11, this is not the kind of talk one finds within the pages of Time or Newsweek.... those who found the early coverage of America's 'War on Terror' to be monotonous will appreciate The Nation's radical point of view."
--Publishers Weekly

"The Nation has been covering well the ground that needed to be turned, and quickly, after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This included examining the role of foreign policy that creates anti-Americanism, the importance of globally collective action in a globalized world, of keeping an eye peeled for those who would profit any way they could, given certain circumstances. This has always been an important antidote to the mainstream, big-circulation media, and never more so in measuring the response of the US government against al Qaeda and the Taliban.... There are valuable reports detailing the response to events in the countries neighboring Afghanistan and an unflattering profile of the Northern Alliance: 'There's Rasoul Sayaf...whose gunmen tortured Shia families and used their women as sex slaves in a series of human rights abuses between 1992 and 1996,' for starters. And finally, a terrific expose from Marc Siegel on Bayer cashing in on the anthrax fear: 'Doxycycline, a generic, is just as effective and costs one-tenth of what Cipro costs.' A valuable collection that raises as many questions as it answers-and how many newsmagazines actually make you think?"
--Kirkus Reviews

Katrina vanden Heuvel has been the editor of The Nation magazine since 1995. She is the coeditor of Taking Back America and Voices of Glasnost, and editor of The Best of the Nation and A Just Reponse. She is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS. Her articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe. She lives in New York City.

Jonathan Schell is currently The Nation's peace and disarmament correspondent. He is the Harold Willens Peace Fellow at The Nation Institute fellow and the author of many books, including The Fate of the Earth, The Unconquerable World and A Hole in the World. Jonathan Schell lives in New York City.