It has become axiomatic that the horrendous events of 9/11 that consumed some 3,000 lives and shredded the nation’s complacency 10 years ago today ultimately changed our world in ways both subtle and profound.
The terrorist attacks triggered national grief that at first pulled the nation together and kindled brotherly mourning in much of the world.
Yet the haunting national anxiety and hidden political agendas that ensued ultimately gave way to an endless “war on terror” that canvassed the great majority of peaceful Muslims and spurred a reflexive national-security complex. In the end, that mindset tacitly condoned a host of political lies and distortions, extralegal police and military powers, unconstitutional torture and assassination tactics, and two misguided wars waged on borrowed money and the dauntless sacrifice and endless deployments of the tiny minority of Americans who actually serve so honorably in this nation’s military.
A decade on, the facts, deceits and mysteries stemming from the 9/11 attacks are still being excavated. Just last week, for example, the Rutgers Law Review published findings of records gleaned from civil and military aviation archives which confirmed that the terrorists who crashed the hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon had managed to evade civil and military monitoring up to the moment they hit their targets.
That flatly contradicted the statements given for more than a year after the attacks by then Vice President Dick Cheney and other civil and military officials.