9–11, 20 Years On

I’ve had the chance to write a yearly message about the attacks of September 11, 2001, for 3 different publications and my website for the past 10 years. I wrote my first 9–11 message as Managing Editor of Liberty Ink Journal in 2010. Not only that, but I’ve written about this event nearly every year since then for something where.

This year is poignant as America’s Longest War has finally come to an end and our troops have flown out of Afghanistan for the last time. This is a decision that no one was going to like. President Trump began the process by negotiating a deal with the Taliban, and President Biden is smart enough to follow through on it. There is no way that the evacuation from Afghanistan was going to be clean. The transition was always going to be messy. Unlike other transitions, this was not entirely on friendly terms. Anyone aware of the situation knew that the Taliban were going to seize power as fast as possible. Although it happened more quickly than anyone really thought, the American-backed government in Kabul wasn’t going to hold out for very long.

The shadow of the 9–11 attacks is as long as the shadows of the twin towers on a fall afternoon. These attacks changed our country forever. Although most people think of airport security when they think of the changes, there are numerous other changes in society. The principle of these is fear. Americans learned how to be afraid of outside attack in a way that was unfamiliar to us before. Regulations in all sorts of large public spaces began to change. Clear bags at stadiums became more…