September 11, the day that "changed everything", has become a platitude, a rationale for American impulsiveness in domestic and foreign policy that would upend any other nation.
September 11 has been recast, not as a day of loss and victimisation, but as a wake-up call for action, a justification for lashing out, for curtailing civil liberties and for diverting limited resources to a defence budget that is defying gravity. September 11 has emerged as the raison d'etre of Americans staking claims… more
