The Ends do not Justify the Means

 If the 9/11 Commission Report does nothing else it should teach its readers that in order to better combat ourselves against terrorism abroad and in the United States we as a people have to become better educated and informed about who the terrorist are, and in what ways we as a people encourage stereotypes that create environments that are ideal for terrorists to be formed.  I feel that the Official 9/11 Commission Report accomplishes this goal, and after having read selections of the report I felt that I had a better grasp of the backstory to 9/11 and an idea of what the United States could do going forward to prevent another catastrophe. After reading the 9/11 graphic representation I was left with none of the same urgency that the Official 9/11 Commission Report instilled in me.  Furthermore, I was stunned at some of the visual and graphic representations that were used in the 9/11 graphic edition-this very same method of over simplification and racial stereotyping is one of the direct causes of terroristic activities.  Irony is humorous in a fictional story and is a very legitimate form of literary construction, but when irony describes a body of work that is supposed to educate the public, especially on something as grave as terrorism, it is tragic.  The most explicit example of the type of racial and nationalistic stereotyping used was the pictures of all the flags from which terrorist have been drawn, as if stating that every person in each of these countries is a terrorist and that the government of each of these countries supports terrorists.  I would also like to address the targeted audience of the graphic representation of the 9/11 report, who are they? If they are children or a younger audience than the intended audience of the Official 9/11 Commission Report than extra caution should be exercised when they read the graphic version.  Opinions of crucial political and executive persons are boiled down into short five or six word statements that do not acknowledge the larger global habitat that is Foreign Policy, strategy fighting terrorism is an important part of Foreign Policy but it is by no means the sole purpose of international relations.  In fact the grading of the improvements in national security at the close of the 9/11 graphic representation does not give any specific examples of the failings or successes in the development of a post 9/11 national security plan, it merely assigns them a letter grade.  I do agree that there should be texts that present a more streamlined approach to the findings of the Official 9/11 Commission Report, however, if the authors of these more streamlined texts use racial, national, and ethnic stereotypes to present the story of 9/11 I think the work should not be written.