A NEW WORLD TOOK SHAPE. IT DID NOT LAST.
In the ghastly rubble of ground zero’s fallen towers 20 years ago, Hour Zero arrived, a chance to start anew.
World affairs reordered abruptly on that morning of blue skies, black ash, fire and death.
In Iran, chants of “death to America’’ quickly gave way to candlelight vigils to mourn the American dead.
In the hellscape of Germany at the end of World War II, the concept of Hour Zero, or Stunde Null, offered the opportunity to start anew. For the US, the zero hour of Sep. 11, 2001, meant a chance to reshape its place in the post-Cold War world from a high perch of influence and goodwill. Those advantages were soon squandered. Instead of a new order, 9/11 fuelled 20 years of war abroad. In the US, it gave rise to the angry, aggrieved, selfproclaimed patriot, and heightened surveillance and suspicion in the name of common defence.
Other parts of the world were not immune. Far-right populist movements coursed through Europe. Britain voted to break away from the European Union. China steadily ascended in the global pecking order. Now, President Joe Biden is trying to restore trust, but there is no easy path. He is ending war, but what comes next? In Afghanistan in August, the Taliban seized control with menacing swiftness as the Afghan government and security forces that the US and its allies had spent two decades trying to build collapsed. No steady hand was evident from the US. Osama bin Laden has been dead for a decade. Saddam was hanged in 2006. The forever wars now are over or ending. The days of Russia tactically enabling the US, and China not standing in the way, petered out.