Jonathan Iwry | Save America from itself

The Faithless Quaker | The United States must defend itself not just from destruction, but also from decline

By Jonathan Iwry 09/14/14 11:38pm

M y generation ca me into a world obsessed with security. The millennium that ushered us in was inaugurated with smoke and burning metal, and the image of two crumbling towers seared itself into our minds forever.

We were shocked at first by the chaos and destruction — and by the horror on our parents’ faces — but it would take several years for us to grasp the deeper meaning of what had happened. It wasn’t just the towers that collapsed that day, but also our confidence in our future as a nation.

Thirteen years, trillions of dollars and a few wars later, the United States is still haunted by that ever-present question: Just how safe are we?

The answer to that question depends on how broadly we understand the notion of safety. The terrorist has become a modern-day figurehead of evil, something to hate and fear. But our concern with foreign radicals is distracting us from more pervasive and ultimately destructive issues from within.

To be sure, we’ve got plenty on our plate abroad. ISIS, the newest chip off the old fundamentalist block, is murdering American journalists to establish its legitimacy. Iran, North Korea and others threaten to acquire nuclear weapons. Terror attacks get thwarted every couple of months or years — even free actors like the Tsarnaev brothers can assemble bombs and win themselves bloody fame in American cities.

These are indeed serious threats, but excessive spending on security has had diminishing returns. We spend more on defense than any other country, yet someone could still blow up a street corner or lob homemade bombs into our backyards. As a good friend put it recently, we can’t spend our way to safety.

Besides, how do terror statistics compare to annual deaths from firearm accidents? How safe is a country whose citizens can’t trust their police force for protection? Terrorists have little to do with our absurd homicide rates. If anything, violence seems to have become so standard for American cities that we’ve ceased to notice it.

Literal violence isn’t the only threat, either. Discussions of safety must also take into account what some call “structural violence ,” or institutional abuses that prevent the underprivileged from advancing in society. Poor fiscal decision-making, widening inequality and inadequate education are also putting a strain on all but the wealthiest.

By failing to take domestic issues more seriously, we also ruin our credibility as an international power. Whether we like (or deserve) it or not, the world looks to us as an example of a strong representative democracy.

If we want to contain extremism and promote the spread of democratic ideology, we have to show fledgling anti-authoritarian societies that there is hope for success. More than that, we must be able to provide a model for them to emulate and improve upon. If we fail, developing countries will instead grow disillusioned with democracy, paving the way for radical insurrectionist factions to gain influence.

And let’s not even start with global warming. A recent study from CSIRO shows that the odds that humans have contributed to unpreced ented global temperatures exceed 99.999 percent . How can we possibly ignore the strain we put on our environment, and ask with a straight face whether we’re in danger?

To ignore such issues and debate how safe we are is like crossing the street without looking both ways while pondering the danger of shark attacks. It’s tempting to assess our condition solely in terms of radical threats — terror has a way of stealing our attention — but whoever does so is looking through a faulty lens. National security and national integrity must go hand in hand .

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it didn’t fall in a day, either. The empire’s undoing had been in the works long before the Visigoths sacked the city. Not all dangers come from beyond our walls. We risk letting down democracy when the world needs it most — and that’s more dangerous than any bomb or missile (save nukes).

I’m not suggesting that violent extremists aren’t an issue. But once we spend less time worrying about terror and turn our concern inward, it becomes clear that any serious discussion of safety requir es that we confront uncomfortable facts about our society.

Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His last name is pronounced “eev-ree.” His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com. “The Faithless Quaker” appears every Monday.

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