New York 9.11

Looking back

Remembering 9/11

Sep 10th 2011, 17:15 by The Economist online

IT WAS commonplace, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, to declare that the world had changed forever. And so, in many ways, it had. Catching a flight will never be the same, nor getting a visa to visit America. For the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, almost nothing remains as it was.

Yet ten years on, it is striking how far down the ranks of public concerns terrorism has fallen. For most in America, and throughout the rich world, economic security has become a far more pressing concern than the physical kind. In part, that is testimony to the lengths Western governments have gone to over the past decade to keep their citizens safe. Mainly, however, it is due to the financial crisis, which several years ago superseded Islamic militancy as the most urgent item on the government's agenda.

That is natural: times change, new problems crop up, old ones lose their saliency. And it is comforting, too, in a way. On September 12th, 2001, it was hard to imagine anything that would distract attention from the horrific events of the day before.

Tomorrow our correspondents will share their thoughts on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. We'll post them throughout the day on this blog. In the meantime, view our leader from the paper, in which we argue that America has made mistakes over the past decade, but cannot afford to drop its guard against al-Qaeda. We also look at the development of Ground Zero in New York, and present two audio slideshows. In the first, Francesc Torres explains the story behind his photographs of objects recovered after the attacks on the World Trade Centre. In the second, Kate Brooks describes her photographs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And for those of you looking for some historical perspective, see our special report from the days after 9/11, where we wonder if anything will ever be the same.

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/09/looking-back-0