cherry blossoms

Christopher Hitchens on Commemorating Sept. 11

September 11th, 2003

Writing on September 8th, Christopher Hitchens argues that we should not be commemorating September 11th too early, or rather that we are commemorating that date in the wrong way:

Should this solemn date be exploited for the settling of scores? Absolutely it should. When confronted with a lethal and determined enemy, one has a responsibility to give short shrift to demoralizing and sinister nonsense. [..]

Two beautiful fall seasons ago, this society was living in a fool's paradise while so far from being "in search of enemies" that its governing establishment barely knew how to tell an enemy from a friend. If there is anything to mark or commemorate, it is the day when that realm of illusion was dispelled—the date that will one day be acknowledged as the one on which our enemies made their most truly "suicidal" mistake.

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