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Sep 10, 2026
Anne-Marie Slaughter
For Americans who are old enough to remember them, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks raised fundamental questions: Who could have done this, and above all, why? We now know that the answers would reshape the country and its place in the world—and not for the better.
WASHINGTON, DC—September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday with sparkling clear blue skies. I was at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband phoned to tell me that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. We presumed that a small aircraft had crashed accidentally, but soon realized that something far graver was happening.
