It's been 18 years, and we are now seeing a generation come of age with no living memory of a pre-9/11 world. Every year, I make the plea to remember but also to forget. The attacks of 9/11 fundamentally broke parts of our country. They militarized us in ways that we haven't yet fully grasped but threaten to undermine core tenets of America's attitude towards standing armies. They created a fearful polity that has come to hate in ways that we were leaving behind. Sure, the hate was still there, but 9/11 dug it up and dumped it into our living rooms.
History is littered with "what if" moments. Few are bigger than 9/11. It changed our country. Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda is scattered. But in the larger picture, they accomplished some of what they wanted.
No comments:
Post a Comment