Everyone remembers what they were doing when the news came over the Internet that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre North Tower. It was one of those moments in history that we witnessed and had to make sense of. Who can forget the sudden wave of vulnerability that came over us at the time. That hasn’t necessarily gone away, we’ve just learned to accept it.
The war against Al-Qaeda goes back before the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. was at war with Al-Qaeda in 1998 following the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Clinton administration has made some attempts at killing bin Laden with no success. It wasn’t until the war reached the U.S. homeland with tragic results that Americans finally took notice.
This was a battle the U.S. couldn’t have avoided. However, the misadventure in Iraq only prolonged the war against Al-Qaeda, caused unnecessary suffering and strengthened real threats like Iran. It also further radicalized many young Muslims. There is no question the world is quite a different place today.
Bin Laden believed that destroying the World Trade Centre would bring down the U.S. economy but, in fact, the attack had no impact at all. Ironically the U.S. economy came crashing down later in the decade, not as a result of the planes but by greed.
I will have no other posts today. Your thoughts and comments on this day are welcome.
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