The arrival of the US navy assault ship in New York raises some interesting questions as to the nature of memorials. The bow section of the USS New York contains 7.5 tonnes of steel salvaged from the site of Ground Zero. The ship was commissioned by the US navy and was launched in 2008 under the motto ‘Never Forget’. It’s a symbolic twist and turn about. The re-wrought steel serves as a reminder of the strength of the ‘first responders’ and the strength of those who died at the World Trade Centre site on 9/11/01. The strength of these people has been granted a lot of cultural significance, perhaps because these particular deaths were preventable and occurred due to malicious violence. Consequently USS New York serves as a handy political tool for those in power to further direct the public’s anger.

So, as to the nature of memorials, why build a ship of war from the remnants of buildings destroyed on 9/11? Is there really true comfort in the idea that other people will die in the future and that somehow a tit-for-tat exchange will redress the deaths of 9/11? Shouldn’t those in power be thinking of ways to avoid a re-occurrence rather than a radical re-thinking of foreign policy?

Hiroshima’s Peace Park comes to mind as a memorial that serves both to remind people of a tragedy and to contend peacefully against allowing such an event to reoccur. Of course, given its radioactivity, it would have been difficult to build a ship from the debris left by ‘Little Boy’ in 1945. The steel of USS New York may not be radioactive but it still bears silent witness to the death of its crew – after all, it is an assault ship.

Instead, the US base budget for defence now rests at $515.4 billion for 2009. Add emergency discretionary spending, supplementary spending and stimulus spending, then factor in defence-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defence and the total estimated discretionary outlay for the defence of the US sits at $730 billion for 2009. Numbers may just be numbers but the reality of an assault ship built partly from what has popularly been dubbed ‘9/11 steel’ is an in-your-face statement of intent.

In 2006, US Naval Officer Commander Chris Mercer was quoted by the BBC as stating, “for the next 40 years that bow will lead this ship in projecting naval power all over the globe in our global fight against terrorism”. Mercer got one thing right – three years on, the ship and the shaping of perceptions of 9/11 are certainly reflect the projections of US power all over the globe.

Sources
www.gpoaccess.gov/USbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf
www.gpoaccess.gov/USbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/tables.pdf
Gallacher, Andy  ‘US warship built from 9/11 steel’ BBC News, Miami, 2006