I disagree with the conclusion of the Sept. 11 editorial, "The truly lost decade since 9/11," which states that "We cannot blame all of this on the U.S. response to 9/11, but the blame begins there."
Given that the U.S. response was multifaceted, the editorial did not identify the aspects of the response with which the writer disagreed or found most troublesome. The complexity of the response surely precludes a simplistic characterization of it as one of "fear" rather than "hope". What does The Japan Times think the detailed response by the United States should have been?
By targeting innocent civilians, terrorism is an insidious attack on society, whether it is perpetrated by the Irish Republican Army, the Baader-Meinhof gang, or Islamists. As the editorial correctly states, "After all, safety is the cornerstone of society." The 9/11 attacks were an attack in America on innocent civilians and its government from a group outside the country that was not an entity of another recognized government. It was ideologically driven.
Several recognized governments around the world were giving safe haven and support to this ideology. Any response had to try to prevent future attacks, and to identify and punish the guilty. It seems to me that blame for this "truly lost decade" begins with the terrorists, not with the U.S. response.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.