THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL:
The devastating al-Qaida attack, and America’s response, had far-reaching consequences which are still developing
An American flag flies near the base of the destroyed World Trade Center. ‘On 9/11, the country transitioned from a dream of unending tranquility at home to a nightmare of forever war.’ Photograph: Peter Morgan/Reuters
Anew and deadly era began when the planes sliced into the twin towers on the morning of 11 September 2001. That evening, the historian Tony Judt wrote that he had seen the 21st century begin. The nearly 3,000 lives stolen by al-Qaida were only a small part of the toll. The horror began a chain of events that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including huge numbers of civilians abroad and many US military personnel. It is still unfolding.
If the killing of the plot’s mastermind Osama bin Laden a few months before the 10th anniversary perhaps let some hope that an end to that new era might be in sight, there can be no such false confidence at the 20th. The establishment
of a Taliban government in Kabul, two decades after the US ousted the militants for harbouring Bin Laden, has underscored two things: that far from reasserting its global supremacy, the US looks more vulnerable today; and that the echoes of 9/11 are still reverberating across the region – but will not stay there.
» | Editorial | Friday, September 10, 2021
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