It is completly unavoidable, we are coming up to the first year anniversary of September 11 2001. The (i) in the title is because I am sure this is the first of a few posts I will make on the subject. Its pretty hard to wander the web without seeing something about this on a regular basis. Metafilter has a lot of threads going on about it. One which caught my eye was a link to a Salon article called Forbidden thoughts about 9/11. Its a good piece and addresses a couple of interesting points.
Its about the only article I’ve seen in the mainstream press about the other possible thoughts to September 11th. In particular this thought which it quotes:
“Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a ‘cowardly’ attack on ‘civilization’ or ‘liberty’ or ‘humanity’ or ‘the free world’ but an attack on the world’s self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions? How many citizens are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word ‘cowardly’ is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others.” — Susan Sontag, The New Yorker: Talk of the Town September 24th 2001