9/11 in Retrospect

9/11 is a phrase which just needs to be said, and not explained. I still remember this day, 10 years ago, napping on the Skytrain, on the way to my classes at UBC, blissfully unaware of the horror that was unfolding on the other side of the continent. I heard a few people discussing planes slamming into buildings and the Pentagon being attacked by those around me, but I just figured they were discussing an action movie and so I went back to sleep...

It wasn't until arrived on campus and found a group of people huddled around a radio that I came to hear of 'America under attack', and what had earlier seemed like fiction, suddenly became reality. Needless to say, the rest of the day, no one payed any attention in class, and we all were more interested in finding a TV during breaks to find out just what was happening.

10 years onwards, undoubtedly America has changed. Minorities, in particular Muslims, I feel will never be trusted again. Security in normal places is just incredible. The sense of freedom, which I observed as an outsider, is now lost.

There is no doubt that not one of the many thousands of innocent lives which were lost that day deserved their fate. But many innocents have died in retaliation throughout the world as well. And I have a feeling, this was the gripe that many throughout the world had before the whole attack took place anyway. Rather than engaging in a dialogue to find out what the cause of the anger against it was, America has just gone about trying to crush it. In my opinion, the world still looks upon the USA, and in particular their foreign policies, with disdain... the goodwill and sympathy the world shared 10 years ago is now lost.

Osama bin Ladens goal was to terrorize the western world into accepting his philosophies. That has not happen. The USA is resilient enough, and will never be forced to act as cowards. Moreover, Bin Laden is now dead, and Al Queda is not the force it once was. Coupled with the slow self democratization of the Middle East, it seems as if people are slowly turning away from Radical Islam, and more towards tolarism and peace.

So where are we? Back to Square One? I don't think either side here has been a 'victor'. Will we forever maintain the status quo of respecting America for its might, but privately cursing them for the arrogance, and the ambivalence they often show? I hope not... if the wounds continue to fester, I worry it is just a matter of time before a new Bin Laden emerges, and a new chapter of fiction becomes a frightening reality.