9/11 anniversary

With September 11 drawing to close, I'll collect a few thoughts about the 3rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Even though I was 3000 miles from the attacks and I don't know anyone who was involved, the terrorist attacks remain unsettling. That kind of thing just isn't supposed to happen in America. I've read various books and articles about what drove al Qaeda and why the US government didn't prevent them from happening. Still, an intellectual understanding doesn't make them any easier to accept.

Of course, I'm angry at Bush's response to the attacks: squandering the world's goodwill, starting unnecessary wars, taking away civil liberties, and exploiting the attacks for political gain. But that anger shouldn't distract us from remembering the suffering that occurred on 9/11, for the people who died, their loved ones, and the world as a whole.

I never bought the claim that 9/11 changed everything, since the problems that were around previously didn't disappear, and many of those issues are at least as important as fighting terrorism. And most days I don't think about 9/11 at all. Still, all those deaths, deliberately orchestrated from afar, had a permanent impact on the American psyche.