Ten years ago, about five blocks from where I live now, two planes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and changed the way America feels about terrorism. For the first time, it was happening right here. Not in far off Paris or Tel Aviv, but in our front yard. Three thousand people just like us lost their lives.
The credit was taken by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, militant Islamist extremists bent on “eliminating foreign influences in Muslim countries”.
Arguably there is now far more western presence in the Islamic states than before the attack. That’s usually how it goes with terrorism.
I don’t think anybody believes this will change anything, but I have to admit there’s a sense of resolution.