Remembering the Chilean Coup

The Other Side of September 11th

Once again, it's September 11th and throughout the US and the rest of the western world there are commemorations of that day in 2001 when „the world had changed“. In many ways, this anniversary is quite typical of western civilization's egocentric view of itself in relation to the rest of the world. Without a doubt, what happened on that day seven years ago in New York City and Washington was a tragedy. But in the larger scheme of things, the magnitude of its importance is highly questionable.

In many ways, it can be argued that not much had really changed since that day. What does appear to be different or to have changed is in fact part of a process that was already well underway before the events of 2001. Indeed, all that was needed was a catalyst in order to either put into action what had already been planned or to further reinforce what had been already taking place.

The problem goes much deeper than this, however. The institutionalization of the 2001 terrorist attacks as „9/11“, „September 11th“, and „the day when everything changed“ belittles and hides from view similar days in history when the world would never again be the same for thousands, even millions of people. Ironically, not only does such pain and suffering also exist outside the US, but such pain and suffering has often been caused by the US.

A case in point is Chile. This year marks the 35th anniversary when the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a military coup sponsored by the US. The Chilean coup of 1973 was a watershed event not only in the history of Chile and Latin America, but developing nations in general.

Although the Chilean coup itself was relatively bloodless, the way in which it proceeded traumatized the nation. On the morning of September 11th some 50,000 people were arrested in Santiago alone. In the ensuing years tens of thousands of Chileans were killed, jailed, tortured, and driven into exile.

The role of the US, in particular Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, in first destabilizing and then overthrowing the government in Chile was decisive. Most observers rank it among the most grotesque intervention ever undertaken by the US and one which set a precedent for future interventions to this day.

The events of 35 years ago still split the nation. Indeed, the anniversary of this date is often one marked by violence and unrest in Chile as economic and political problems plague the country. Some simply want to forget what happened and try look to the future, preferring to regard what happened in 1973 as a part of history.

Nevertheless, for many others both within and without what is distressing about the present is how the attention economy has almost forgotten about this crucial date in world history. Although references to the events in Chile as the „other 911“ or the „other September 11th“ can be readily found on the Internet, little or no mention is made in the corporate media empires of North America and western Europe.

Unfortunately, the same is also true in Central and Eastern Europe. Few know anything about what happened in 1973, where Chile is, and even who Pinochet was. Conversely, the terrorist attacks in 2001 on the US are repeated ad nauseum.

As with the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, Rwanda, Srebenica, Trianon, and the countless other tragedies that make up human history, it's not a matter of comparing sorrow and pain, but the way in which the corporate media tries to convince people that some lives are somehow worth more than others. Sadly this is an approach which continues to this day in many parts of the world. Civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance, barely make the news. On the other hand, much ado is made when the number of US deaths in Iraq reaches a certain threshold (two thousand, three thousand, etc.); the fact that hundreds of thousands Iraqis have been killed is often mentioned only in passing. In many ways, it's a perverse reflection of Stalin's axiom that one death is a tragedy, but a million just statistics.

For this reason, it is understandable why many from Latin America and elsewhere are bitter about the notion of the „other“ 911. As Tito Tricot, a Sociologist and Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies (ILWEN) in Chile noted back in 2002, „The US government and media use different standards to measure suffering. It is precisely this hypocrisy and these double standards that make us sick.“ He goes on to add: „One cannot - and should not - attempt to quantify suffering, but we do have the right to denounce this double standard.“

The danger of present trends is that the western industrial democracies of North America and Europe continue to isolate themselves from the rest of the world by such actions. As a result, the average person within these societies becomes increasingly baffled as to why the rest of the world despises them and their way of life.

This, in turn, reinforces the likes of Huntington's concept of a „clash of civilizations“, the political expression of which can be presently found in the so-called „war on terror“. Such a conflict, as presently defined by western governments, is quite vague. Subsequently, without any concrete objectives or benchmarks, it ends up turning into nothing more than a perpetual war for perpetual peace.

Not only has such a situation become incomprehensible to many in North America and Europe, it is also something which will only worsen with time. Demographics is working against the industrial societies of the west, and no matter how much faith is being put into technology and brute military force, these societies will invariably find themselves on the losing side of the so-called „war against terror“.

Meanwhile, those on the „other side“ are becoming progressively resentful to the Pax Americana regime which has been imposed upon them. This also goes for the notion of „September 11th“, which has already lost much of the power of its symbolism in many parts of the world. As Tricot aptly points out: „Neither the United States nor anybody has the right to steal our memory. No one has the right to steal our day, for September the 11 1973 is marked in our hearts with tears.“