NINE years ago today, a friend rang me in Karachi and told me to turn my TV on immediately. In a live feed, the BBC was showing images of smoke billowing from one of the Twin Towers. A subdued voice told the world that a plane had slammed into the building. Minutes later, another airliner flew into the second tower.

From that day on — a day referred to simply as 9/11 — the world has changed for the worse. As details emerged about the attack on the Pentagon, as well as of another hijacked aircraft that was forced down by passengers, it became clear that we were witnessing the most horrendous single terrorist attack in history.

Any attempt to take stock of post-9/11 events runs the risk of bias: the atrocity provokes so much emotional response that it is hard to view them...
TAGGED: Osama Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, Afghanistan, United States, Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Taliban, Pentagon, Washington, Karachi