It has been a decade since 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them into U.S. landmarks. That savage attack marked the beginning of a new era in modern history. The decade has been marked by war, and the deepening of cleavages inside and between almost every country on the planet.
As the dust cleared on that day, the world witnessed many incidents of heroism and the best that humanity has to offer. Since then, though, much of the very worst has been on display as well. The easiest way to measure the impact of Sept. 11, 2001, is to tote up the costs, and they are staggering.
"The Costs of War," by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, calculates the final cost of the wars waged and led by the United States as between $3.7 trillion and $4.4 trillion. That includes the cost of fighting the wars themselves, the long-term obligations to veterans and paying debts incurred because the U.S. chose deficit financing rather than taxes to pay for the wars.