The fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center by Islamic militants has come and gone, leaving some glaring contrasts in its wake.
On the one hand we had U.S. President George W. Bush at the 9/11 site orating about the need to see the "war on terror" through to the end. On the other hand we had a U.S. Senate report saying in effect that the pretexts for the original "war on terror" -- Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its purported links to al-Qaida -- were completely bogus.
On the one hand we had many images showing the sorrow among the kin of those lost in the 9/11 attack. But we saw little of the sorrow among the far greater numbers of people left widowed or orphaned as a result of attacks by Western troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.