Days End

"Day's End": Article Summary

Diving into some of the most important issues America has faced this decade, writer Frank Rich provides us with a more realistic yet darker, critical and more pessimistic view on 9/11 and its results on our nation. The article "Day's End" reminisces on the events of 9/11 and then harshly reviews the aftermath and links the tragedy to other problems such as the current recession; finally returning to current day America and posing the question of who exactly won in our war against terror.

Via a flashback we are transported back to 9/11, yet surprisingly we are not bombarded with tragedy and carnage as the author simply sets up the setting to quickly get to his point. The author then points out three "red-letter" days in 2011 as water shed moments in this decade; one of those days being the day Osama bin Laden was killed. His death is noted as a symbolic victory but a rather trivial one. The other two days are August 5th and 6th; when America was downgraded by Standard & Poor's and when Americans suffered the most deaths in Afghanistan. Both these days served as a bitter indication of the financial sacrifice and bloodshed that has funded our current wars.

The article then proceeds to specifically point out how the government and corporations took advantage of 9/11 for political gain and profit. The criticism of how the situation was handled becomes even more severe as America's desensitization towards the tragedy is blamed on the censoring and misattributed cause. In other words, the events association with the wars we are involved in has led to our nations anesthetization towards 9/11.

The article then connects 9/11 to our current recession, detailing how the Bush administration plunged the nation into darkness. A quick review of the many decisions made under this administration during the "most reckless fiscal year