Where Were You on the morning of 9/11

Where Were You on the Morning of 9/11/01

The following is an excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2009, titled "The End of a Decade."  the full text of the essay is posted below this entry, should you be interested in reading it in full. Your comments are welcome.

On the sunny morning of September 11, 2001, America was attacked by the enemy, an unthinkable situation.  On that morning, we were awakened around six by a call from my daughter, “Turn on the TV and watch the CNN,” she asked us.  At first we didn’t realize what was the matter, but when, minutes later the second tower got hit by a jetliner, the media announced that the blowing up of the towers was an act of terrorism that the highjackers have crashed commercial jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The pictures of the Twin Towers blowing up in fire that we saw, on TV, on that morning, are etched in my memory and will stay with me forever. 

My daughter, Tina, stayed glued to the TV for the rest of the week.  I saw how the incident engulfed her.  She was supposed to fly on that very day to Armenia.  Of course her flight was cancelled.  Another thing that kept her close to the incident was that a year ago, she was working at the 89^th floor of the World Trade Center.  And then the idea that she had flown the same jetliner from Boston to Los Angeles just a week ago, boggled her mind.  She was really in a state of shock for the entire week.

The incident shook America, creating an unprecedented fear of terrorism.  To retaliate the “House” agreed to launch war on terrorism, by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. We poured billions of dollars into two unnecessary wars, depleted our coffers, sent our young men to faraway lands, by telling them that they are defending America from terrorism.  The wars elicited discontent within Americans and we became an unpopular nation.