Coronavirus and conflict

The 'Tower of Light' pays tribute to those killed in the 911 attacks, as seen from the Washington Monument. — AFP

TWENTY years ago, on that fateful September day, the world changed forever. Even as the smoke and ash from the cataclysm was still in the air, a superpower set off on the warpath. The Sept 11, 2001, attack, the hawkish neoconservatives who were in charge of the White House decided, had to be avenged.

For the next 20 years and through Democratic and Republican presidencies, America would remain on the warpath, bombing and droning, as it hunted down and struck terrorist targets.