Some Reflections on the 9/11 Decade

There are simply too many think pieces about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but I have come across a few that made me stop:

• A decade on (Canadian Lawyer Sept 2011 cover story): "Kent Roach [University of Toronto law professor and author of the newly published The 9/11 Effect: Comparative Counter-Terrorism] thinks of it as the age of innocence, those emotional early months following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., when Canadians were vigorously debating new anti-terrorism laws. Parliament, the legal community, and other stakeholders were consumed with how to craft legislation that would properly balance national security, privacy, and human rights. That was long before most Canadians had ever heard of Maher Arar or Omar Khadr. No-fly lists, security certificates, and electronic surveillance were barely on the national radar. The federal public safety department, now one of the most high-profile federal ministries, didn’t exist. Canada had not yet deployed the 37,000 soldiers who would serve in Afghanistan over the following decade, 157 of whom lost their lives."
• 9/11, ten years on: reflections (UK website openDemocracy, September 7, 2011): "A terror-filled day of mass murder in the eastern United States imprinted itself on the world's consciousness - and became the prelude to a decade of further violence. openDemocracy writers reflect on the impact and legacy of the events of 11 September 2011.
• Canadian Reflections on A Decade of Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism (Prism Magazine article by Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English branch, September 8, 2011): "It has been, to say the least, a difficult decade for human rights. Human rights were put on the defensive; forced to prove their relevance in a time of insecurity. The tragic irony of course being that one of the surest guarantors of meaningful, lasting security is effective, robust human rights protection. But instead we entered a time of what seemed to have become a zero sum game when it came to human rights and security. Add on one side – more security; take away on the other side – less rights."
• The Encyclopedia of 9/11 (New York Magazine): "As this anniversary loomed, we found ourselves asking: With all we now know, how to begin to address the enormity of the event? Our solution was not to shrink from its scale but to embrace it. "