For the first time, today’s column is not about sex.
Every American knows what happened on this day six years ago. And every American knows what we lost: people, buildings, our sense of predictability.
We lost the last remnant of civilized air travel. One by one, we lost many of our cherished rights. We lost over 1 trillion dollars—10% of America’s entire annual Gross Domestic Product.
Our government started a war against an innocent country ruled by a sadistic tyrant—a war that still rages out of control. No one knows if we are now actually safer. But every American feels less safe than he or she ever has. Nobody honestly believes that we will ever feel safe again. We have lost the feeling of safety—forever.
Among all the platitudes regurgitated about 9/11, all the solemn oaths about sacrifice, moral superiority, and “victory,” there is one more loss that we should never forget.
Click here to see photos from around the world taken on September 12. See people weeping for us in Moscow, Tokyo, Berlin, Sydney, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Skopje, and Beijing. Click here to read condolences from the Presidents of Syria, France, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Egypt, and Israel.
Marvel at how united the world was on September 12. Recall how the world’s compassion was freely given to us that day.
And be bitter about what our government did with that sacred, historic patrimony. In only 1,000 days, our President and Congress took the world’s friendship and turned it into the world’s hate. More than buildings, more than deaths, that is the profound loss we should be mourning today.