Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
It's now a decade since the shocking and tragic events of 9/11. How did we get to here and what have we learnt? We've collected some of the best writing reflecting on the legacy of the attacks for America and the world
Compilation of live TV reports as planes struck the WTC
Lessons from 9/11. "Two broad oceans do not protect us from the tide of history"
Why does the military of a country convinced it’s becoming ungovernable think itself so capable of making another ungovernable country governable? What’s the military’s skill set here? What lore, what body of political knowledge, are they drawing on?
The current situation is the product of more than eight years of chronic under-resourcing, under-reaction, spin, self-delusion and neglect. It is the result of one of the worst examples of wartime leadership in American history
Afghanistan is the place where theories of warfare go to die
My objection to all my liberal friends who ran with the Iraq hawks is that they were not making the case for liberal interventionism, but for exemplary war
What if the question is, are you willing to send your son or daughter to die in Afghanistan, so that children can fly kites, women can work outside the home?
America’s “combat mission” in Iraq may be over. But the combat is not. Neither is the mission
Anne Applebaum, on the post-9/11 decade
"Could it be that the planes that hit New York and Washington did less damage to the nation than the cascade of bad decisions that followed?"
Fran Lebowitz, on post-9/11 security
"All you would hear was: 'safety, safety, safety'. I think there is nothing more dangerous than constantly thinking about safety"
On pilot sent after flight UA93. "The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft. Except her own plane. So that was the plan"
Solid, sober, sensible analysis of decade since 9/11. Relentless fightback by America, mistakes, terrible sacrifices, new dangers created, freedoms lost, a sense of moving on. There can be no return to innocence nor end to vigilance
Gripping 9/11 retrospective focusing on failure of CIA to pass critical information to FBI. "The judgement I made, and which I shall always regret, is that it was not quite important enough for me to risk going to jail"
The 9/11 decade is now over. It was supposed to bequeath Americans a stronger nation, not a busted one. Civic virtue, bi-partisanship. A finer legacy than Gitmo and the Patriot Act. But it was hijacked, ideologically, commercially
New Yorker editor reflects on 10 years since 9/11. "We continue to reckon not only with the violence that bin Laden inflicted but with the follies, the misjudgments, and the violence that, directly or indirectly, he provoked"
"Responsibility, somehow, never lay squarely with the perpetrators." Hitchens reflects on a decade since 9/11: "There turned out to be many millions of Arabs who have heretically and robustly preferred life over death"
Concise, highly critical economic assessment of Bush's post-9/11 wars. He took America into "the first war in history paid for entirely on credit". Legacy of his disastrous leadership will be with Americans for years to come
For most of the world, it was a tragedy. For many people and companies, it has proved a goldmine. They include Rudy Giuliani, sundry outright fraudsters, and practically everyone involved in the $20bn redevelopment of Ground Zero
On the construction projects taking shape where twin towers once stood. Footprints of towers themselves kept as monuments. "You wouldn't mistake it for an ordinary park or urban piazza, but it isn't a cemetery, either"
Prepare for many essays about 9/11, 10 years on. This one a high-class front-runner. "The late nineties in New York City was a period when nothing seemed to go wrong, and New Yorkers went right to, and through, the looking glass"
Three-minute audio slideshow from ground zero. After 9/11, iron workers volunteered to demolish remains of the WTC. Now they're putting up a building on the same spot. Great shots illustrating a tough job
Lovely piece, pegged to 9/11 anniversary, on the restorative power, benefits of spectator sport. "The games absorb us. And sometimes that's what we need. We need something to soak us up. We need to get carried away"
Superb political post-mortem on Bin Laden. Read the whole thing, but in brief: 9/11 ultimately counterproductive for Al-Qaeda. Its strategy proved faulty, ideology unpopular. In the Arab uprisings, AQ and jihadism are nowhere
Bin Laden convinced many that Islam and the West were destined to clash. After his death, Muslim individuals must wrest back their faith, Muslim societies take responsibility for their destiny. This is already starting to happen
Incredibly thorough five-part series on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the decade the search encompassed. Interesting detail on just how exasperated the Bush administration had become after years with no tangible leads
The most detailed account to date of what happened that night in Abbottabad. Tense, powerful piece of writing describing the planning, build-up and execution of America's special forces raid on the world's most wanted man
Enough Bin Laden already! I know, but this is the cut-out-and-keep piece which gives you the tick-tock, the dialogue from the situation room, the inside stuff about how the raid was planned. This is what great newspapers are for
"Raised in a palace in Jeddah, Osama grew up polite, diligent and pious. Though he graduated in civil engineering and spent a short period in the family company, his interests lay elsewhere. He leaves four wives and 19 children"
Reprinted sermon delivered days after 9/11, by pastor and professor of Harvard's Divinity School. 'We seek the God who precedes and follows these temples made and destroyed by human hands.' Heartfelt and moving
Excellent profile of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, supposed mastermind of 9/11. He is earthy, slick in a way, but naïve, and seemingly motivated as much by pathology as ideology
How Mohammed Atta cultivated a terrorist network from Hamburg and used it as the springboard for 9/11. Lots of observation of the location and conversational details with those who knew Atta
Strangely brilliant. Beyond McSweeney's. Rewriting of the 9/11 report in the form of an index, compressing data about principal characters and so making motivations more comprehensible
Despite the pessimism New Yorkers felt for their city on the morning after 9/11, relative calm and prosperity has followed
First piece in much-heralded series arguing that growth of America's secret services and agencies since 9/11 has created an unmanageable, unaccountable, fourth branch of government
Full 9/11 Commission report, available chapter by chapter (PDF or HTML). Covers "circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks"
