How 9/11 Changed the World

Photo of two people on bikes and other bystanders looking towards the twin towers as they burn. The air is filled with ash and the photo is very hazy.

The World Trade Center buildings in New York City collapsed on September 11, 2001, after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in a terrorist attack. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Voices & Opinion

How 9/11 Changed the World

BU faculty reflect on how that day’s events have reshaped our lives over the last 20 years

September 8, 2021

BU Today staff

Saturday, September 11, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the largest terrorist attack in history. On that Tuesday morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four American commercial flights destined for the West Coast and intentionally crashed them. Two planes—American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175—departed from Boston and Flight 11 struck New York City’s World Trade Center North Tower at 8:46 am and Flight 175 the South Tower at 9:03 am, resulting in the collapse of both towers. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, leaving from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 am, and the final plane, United Airlines Flight 93, departing from Newark, N.J., crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., at 10:03 am, after passengers stormed the cockpit and tried to subdue the hijackers.

In the space of less than 90 minutes on a late summer morning, the world changed. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day and the United States soon found itself mired in what would become the longest war in its history, a war that cost an estimated $8 trillion. The events of 9/11 not only reshaped the global response to terrorism, but raised new and troubling questions about security, privacy, and treatment of prisoners. It reshaped US immigration policies and led to a surge in discrimination, racial profiling, and hate crimes.

In observance of the anniversary, BU Today reached out to faculty across Boston University—experts in international relations, international security, immigration law, global health, terrorism, and ethics—and asked each to address this question: “How has the world changed as a result of 9/11?”

“The fires of 9/11 continue to burn.”

Adil Najam, dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and professor of international relations and College of Arts & Sciences professor of earth and environment.

Those who planned and implemented the horrendous attacks of 9/11 could not have imagined all the ways that their attempt to sow chaos would change the world. Nor could the leaders and policymakers who reacted to the events of that horrible day. Both were out to change the world. And they did. But not always in the ways they intended to or imagined. Such are the ways of history.

Osama bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaeda survives.

September 11 triggered a “War on Terror” that continues even as new generations of terror organizations proclaiming to speak for “real” Islam sprout with new names and across the globe. A generation of terrorists was hunted down; many were killed, many more rotted in prison. A new generation has emerged.

The United States has been able to deter any other attacks of similar scope on the “homeland” (a word that derived new meaning from 9/11). But across the Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa, war, violence, and conflict fanned by 9/11 and its aftermath persist.

In Afghanistan, the United States fought the longest war (19 years) of its history, but on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, all Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban.

The only honest thing to say about just how 9/11 changed the world is that it is still too early to say. The fires of 9/11 continue to burn.

“The horrific events of September 11, 2001, forever altered the framework of the United States immigration law and policy.”

Sarah Sherman-Stokes, School of Law clinical associate professor of law and associate director, LAW’s Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program

The horrific events of September 11, 2001, forever altered the framework of the United States immigration law and policy. Just days before 9/11, then–US President George W. Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox were actively discussing a path toward citizenship for more than three million undocumented Mexican citizens then living in the United States. After September 11, immigration and terrorism became nearly synonymous, such that any path toward citizenship was quickly off the table, exchanged for escalating immigration enforcement and racial profiling.

Significant changes in immigration law and policy quickly followed. In direct response to the events of September 11, immigration enforcement operations were dramatically reshuffled, placed under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security—sending a clear signal that the “homeland” must be protected from foreigners who might do us harm. The executive branch also created the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a program specifically targeting Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities for “special registration,” racial profiling, surveillance, detention, and deportation. Before the program finally ended in 2016, estimates are that more than 14,000 individuals faced deportation. In addition, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005 significantly expanded the grounds of inadmissibility based on “terrorist activity” and made it much more difficult for asylum seekers to succeed on their claims for protection. Border patrol has been expanded and border technology and surveillance have grown dramatically. There is little evidence that these costs have been justified.

At the same time, communities across the country have built incredible coalitions of resistance, challenging racist laws and excessive enforcement strategies at the local, state, and national level. As conversations around policing and abolition grow, now is the moment—20 years later—for us to critically reflect on our missteps and to reevaluate what laws and policies in fact make our country stronger, safer, and more whole.

“I learned to appreciate what it means to be the other, the outsider.”

Muhammad Zaman, College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor

I was in graduate school in Chicago, when the September 11 terrorist attacks happened. In the days, weeks, months, and years after that fateful day, both the world around me, and my own life, changed. As a Muslim male from Pakistan, I had to get accustomed to being selected “randomly” for screening at the airports. I had to register with new offices every time I left the country. In August 2004, my wife and I, along with our three-month-old son, were questioned for hours as we returned from Pakistan. We were whisked away in a special office while the immigration officers went through receipts in my wallet. To this day, my boarding passes, in addition to my name and seat number, usually have SSSS printed on them—a sign that I need a secondary inspection before I board the flight. I learned to appreciate what it means to be the other, the outsider.

Gradually the personal experiences shaped my own research, a significant part of which now focuses on the challenges facing those who are constantly otherized. My experiences have not all been negative. There are many who have renewed my faith in humanity. My students today are not just engineers—they are also ethical citizens of the world. They stand up for injustice at home and abroad. They are willing to take chances, create new knowledge and new solutions that traverse disciplinary boundaries. Most importantly, they are happiest when they work to heal those whose pain has been invisible to us for far too long.

“The biggest challenge, going forward, is to avoid taking actions in response to our worst fears.”

Jessica Stern, Pardee School research professor, Homeland Security Experts Group member, and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft fellow; served on President Clinton’s National Security Council staff in 1994-1995.

Despite intelligence warnings that al-Qaeda was plotting a major strike against the United States, 9/11 was a shock, even to experts. Nineteen terrorists killed more Americans in a single day than the number that had died at Pearl Harbor. The emotions unleashed on that day—shock, horror, and terror—played an extremely important role in the 20-year war on terrorism. In a speech to the nation soon after the attack, President Bush proclaimed, “Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.” Those words set in motion a war the United States was bound to lose.

Risk analysts tell us that when a threat is emotionally charged and evokes disproportionate dread, decision makers are at risk of action bias, which involves rapidly choosing remedies without considering countervailing risks or long-term consequences, like taking ibuprofen for a headache without anticipating the risk of stomach pain. As Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman explains, the emotional arousal ignited by terrorism and other vivid hazards “is associative, automatic, and uncontrolled, and it produces an impulse for protective action.”

In retrospect, this is precisely the trap that policymakers fell into. Their shock and fear led them to attempt the impossible. They imposed electoral democracy, hoping against hope that liberal institutions and protections for minorities would follow. They did not. Instead, new, even more brutal terrorist organizations emerged in both countries. And no one seems to have thought carefully about the difficulty of ending a war, once it’s begun, or about the moral imperative to remove our Afghan allies to safety.

By now, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project, the United States has spent over $6 trillion on the post 9/11 wars. Some 800,000 people have died in total, among them more than 7,000 US military personnel and over 335,000 civilians. These figures do not take into account the terrible psychological toll on our military personnel, many of whom are suffering from debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal depression.

Terrorism is psychological warfare, intended to bolster the morale of supporters and demoralize and terrify its target audience. The aim is to get the target government to overreact, for example, by attempting to “rid the world of evil.” The biggest challenge, going forward, is to avoid taking actions in response to our worst fears, while nonetheless sustaining the effort to reduce the threat, even during periods when the risk of terrorism recedes from national consciousness.

“Beginning with 9/11, the CIA became more than ever a covert action agency.”

Joseph Wippl, Pardee School professor of the practice of international relations and former Central Intelligence Agency officer

When 9/11 occurred, I was a field manager in Europe for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The cataclysmic event of 9/11 introduced a period of hysteria within the CIA and other national security agencies. The United States was the injured party, and now it had the right, with all its military and economic strength, to go on a crusade to avenge this dastardly deed. Al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11, were decimated, their hosts, the Taliban, were driven from power, and scores were settled with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The CIA as a covert action agency was resurrected. During the decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, CIA capabilities in the fields of intelligence collection, analysis, and covert action were substantially reduced. Covert action had always been a CIA prerogative since the passage of the National Security Act of 1947, but within the CIA, covert action was always viewed ambivalently. The reason for this ambivalence was that when covert action succeeded, others took the credit, but when it failed, the CIA took the blame.

Beginning with 9/11, the CIA became more than ever a covert action agency. Enthusiastic support for covert action replaced ambivalence, because there was almost universal support from three presidents and the Congress. Covert action by the CIA became a US government third option between doing nothing against terrorist operatives or sending tens of thousands of American military to fight in the Middle East or Central Asia.

Given recent events in Afghanistan, covert action by the CIA will remain and likely will grow to remain the tool of the US government to counter terrorist activities in that region.

“9/11 changed nearly everything.”

Kaija Schilde, Pardee School associate professor of international relations

How has the world changed since 9/11? I’ve avoided answering prompts like this because: 1) I was in the Pentagon on 9/11 and it has been too personal and “too soon,” and 2) it seems too vast, because 9/11 changed nearly everything. However, I’ll mention one thing: the defense budget. The US wars in reaction to 9/11 created the contemporary American warfare state. 1990s budget cuts (nearly 50 percent) partially dismantled the Cold War military. After 9/11, increases in military spending outpaced increases in civilian spending on education, health care, public transit, and science by nearly fivefold. The estimated costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are $8 trillion and 900,000 lives, not including the ongoing regional political instability and the human security tolls of refugee displacement. Counterterrorism spending alone has been 16 percent of the entire US discretionary budget since 2002. In addition, defense spending itself, particularly during economic boom times (early 2000s and post 2012), altered the US economy, producing different economic winners and losers. Winners are not just defense contractors or others who directly benefit from spending. Defense spending during an economic cycle of growth supercharges an economy, leading to boom-bust cycles. Military spending creates artificial inflation for certain sectors of the economy, such as the finance and housing sectors, while devastating other sectors, such as civilian manufacturing. Massive military spending should not be understood as something that grows the economy, but warps its competitive sectors, while creating boom-bust cycles, such as the 2008 crash.

“The ongoing consequences of the US decision to torture terror suspects is profound.”

Sondra Crosby, School of Medicine professor of medicine and School of Public Health associate professor of health law, ethics, and human rights and Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights director of medical care

After 9/11, the United States tortured terrorism suspects in a secret government-sponsored program that shocked the conscience and the world with its cruelty and depravity. The United States lost its moral compass and international reputation as a human rights beacon. Health professionals and lawyers working together played a critical role in designing, justifying, and carrying out the torture program in the CIA “Black Sites” and US military detention centers. We are reminded that 75 years after Nuremberg, medical professionals are vulnerable to using their medical skills to cause harm and even torture. Both health professionals in the “War on Terror” and the Nazi doctors justified their participation as “legal” under the current existing law, and on national security grounds (preventing another 9/11).

The ongoing consequences of the US decision to torture terror suspects is profound. I have evaluated many of the US victims at locations around the world and know that torture has caused irreparable damage to individuals, families, and communities. The use of torture has impeded bringing the alleged perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks to justice and closure to families. The only way forward is to steer a new course. It is long past time to close Guantanamo, hold perpetrators accountable, provide reparations to victims and their families, and uphold the absolute prohibition on torture which is enshrined in international law. One of the lasting lessons from 9/11 needs to be that doctors and lawyers must work together to uphold human rights and prevent crimes against humanity—because as the US torture program has taught us, human rights cannot survive their working together to subvert them.

“What if we had chosen another way?”

Neta C. Crawford, CAS professor of political science, codirector of the Eisenhower Study Group Costs of War Project, based at Brown University, and author of Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars

On September 11, 2001, I was home getting my daughter ready for daycare when the planes hit the twin towers and the Pentagon. I knew immediately the United States was likely to go to war. The next day, September 12, I gave a talk at Brown University describing all the ways fear affects decision making—many of them not so good, including the tendency toward groupthink. I hoped the United States would spend more time thinking about the consequences of a potential war, and the alternatives to war, but Americans were so afraid, so angry, and frankly, so shocked, that we acted without much deliberation.

There was just a day between when the United States was attacked on 9/11 and nearly 3,000 people were killed and when President Bush decided he would go to war against terrorists. And then it was just a week between the 9/11 attack and when Congress authorized an open-ended war on terror. President Bush talked diplomacy and sanctions against the Taliban, but we did not spend significant effort working on those alternatives. The US Global War on Terror expanded to more than 85 countries—including drone strikes, troops, advisors, and weapons.

Over the last 20 years, more than 7,000 service members lost their lives in that war, and between 360,000 and 387,000 civilians have been killed by all sides.

What if we had chosen another way? Could we have focused our efforts on protecting the homeland and thwarted terrorist attacks that way? Would the people killed in these wars be alive? Would there have been more money for the public health care system? Could we have repaired US infrastructure? Could we have reduced military greenhouse gas emissions?

“Police militarization…is, to a large extent, a response to September 11.”

Christopher Rhodes, College of General Studies lecturer in social sciences

Police militarization—one of the main targets of Black Lives Matter and other inspired anti–police brutality movements around the world—is, to a large extent, a response to September 11. Although scholars like Jessica Katzenstein at Brown University have written about the link between the two, I don’t know that most people associate the two phenomena. After September 11, American police departments really started training their officers in military-style counterterrorism and surveillance tactics. Furthermore, when the United States started to draw down its troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq after years of heavy combat, billions of dollars worth of surplus US military equipment was sold or donated to local police forces around the country, and many police departments hired recent veterans as well.

And this is not just an American phenomenon. In addition to giving weapons to its own police departments, the United States became the world’s biggest arms supplier in the decades since 9/11. For example, the United States has supplied a significant amount of guns and other equipment to the Mexican military, which has in turn distributed most of these weapons and gear to state and local police forces to battle drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism.” Meanwhile, countries like the UK and France adopted harsher, more militaristic approaches after terror attacks in their countries and other parts of Europe. Unsurprisingly, the tactics, weapons, and personnel deployed by police forces in the name of combating terrorism have taken over policing in general, especially in urban communities and among Black and brown populations, exacerbating issues of police violence and racial, ethnic, and class disparities in policing around the world.

“The world has changed in 20 years; however, the greatest change has been in ourselves.”

Jack Weinstein, Pardee School professor of the practice of international security and retired US Air Force lieutenant general

The challenges facing this nation are radically different from the sole focus we had in 2001—defeating Islamic terrorists who viciously attacked our nation. The unending war in Afghanistan did end, but not how we hoped, as the Taliban are once again ruling the country and America’s leadership in the world is being questioned. Two decades ago we were truly “The UNITED States of America.” Under the death and destruction of 9/11, we saw Americans united in purpose and neighbors supporting each other as though they were family. However, that world of unity and singular focus no longer exists.

Today’s international security environment is complicated, challenging, and chaotic. Russia and China are focused on changing the world order that was established after World War II. Domestically, we are the “DISUNITED States of America.” Terrorists are now homegrown and are trying to destroy the fabric of our nation under the guise of patriotism. We watched in horror as Americans attacked the US Capitol on January 6, carrying Aryan flags—people who are now being defended by some members of Congress.

Twenty years later we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Caring for each other has been replaced with selfishness. Global warming is no longer a future threat as we’re seeing the daily impacts of our inaction. The world has changed in 20 years; however, the greatest change has been in ourselves. September 11, 2001, brought out the best in us. The last four years brought out the worst in us.

“The last 20 years have reminded us of our nation’s worst and best traits.”

Sahar Aziz, School of Law William and Patricia Kleh Visiting Professor in International Law

The last 20 years have reminded us of our nation’s worst and best traits: a political system with Eurocentric racism baked into its institutions and a rich culture of dissent that checks government repression.

In the years immediately following 2001, the US government demonstrated its insatiable appetite for collective punishment at home and imperialism abroad. As I show in my book The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, the Global War on Terror (GWOT) legitimized egregious civil rights and liberties violations of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians, subject to mass deportation, surveillance, and counterterrorism enforcement. Abroad, the GWOT was used as legal cover for the occupation of Iraq, torture, extraordinary rendition, and indefinite detention in the Guantanamo Bay prison—often referred to as America’s 21st-century gulag.

Although state propaganda unduly influences mainstream media’s coverage of this limitless war, civil society stepped up to the task of challenging egregious government overreach. Like any dissident movement, it began with a small number of courageous Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians and their allies. Despite accusations of sympathizing with terrorists, the political dissidents’ commitment to social justice and civil liberties slowly gained momentum. Investigative reporting that revealed massive National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, waterboarding at US prisons abroad, and massive surveillance of American Muslims bolstered the credibility of civil liberties advocates.

However, most Americans still refused to acknowledge that Islamophobia was pervasive. It was not until Donald Trump was elected president in the fall of 2016 on an overtly Islamophobic and anti-immigrant platform that most Americans were faced with the reality that anti-Muslim racism was pervasive. Trump’s Muslim ban, issued only 10 days after his inauguration, added the seal of legality to state-sponsored Islamophobia.

While Islamophobia was being mainstreamed, a seismic political development occurred—the election of the first African American president of the United States. A backlash of anti-Black racism was not coincidentally expressed through overt Islamophobia. One need only look to the Birther Movement’s allegations that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim not born in the United States.

The 2008 presidential election ultimately put a progressive grassroots movement on a collision course with systemic racism. Far right-wing groups experienced a surge in recruitment just as the Black Lives Matter movement was mobilizing a generation of racially diverse progressives who were no longer willing to accept state-sponsored violence against Black (and brown) communities.

To be sure, the Trump administration’s tenure was the most politically polarized period since the Vietnam War. But those four tumultuous years finally put to rest the twin myths that American society is colorblind and Islamophobia is an anomaly.

The generation who has come of age after 9/11 now carries the burden of upending the political, economic, and social systems that make racialized domestic and foreign wars all too predictable.

“…the attacks blew a hole in one small, beautiful part of the world.”

Mitchell Zuckoff, Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Narrative Studies, College of Communication, and author of Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11.

Rather than talk about how the world changed on 9/11, allow me to describe how the attacks blew a hole in one small, beautiful part of the world.

Earlier today I had a long phone call with Eunice Hanson, whose son Peter Hanson (Questrom’94) and daughter-in-law Sue Kim Hanson (GRS’92, MED’02) (posthumous PhD in immunology) were killed aboard United Airlines Flight 175 with their two-year-old daughter, Christine, the youngest victim of 9/11.

Peter called his parents twice from the hijacked flight, at one point comforting his father, Lee: “Don’t worry about us, it’s going to be quick.” Eunice and Lee were watching television as the plane exploded into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Eunice told me, “We missed our future. It was taken from us.” Lee, who died in 2019, was hollowed out by the losses. He spent the rest of his life seeking justice, twice traveling to Guantanamo Bay to bear witness to proceedings against the admitted mastermind of the attacks. Eunice has persevered, finding joy in her remaining family even as she sadly marks the latest missed milestone: “Christine would be graduating from college at this point.”

Eunice said she had a message for the generation not yet born or too young to remember 9/11: “We cannot take for granted what we have here in this wonderful, wonderful country. The freedom that we have been given, that many have sacrificed for us to keep, we have to understand that freedom isn’t free.”

Find a list of all those with ties to the BU community killed on 9/11 here.

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Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 46 comments on How 9/11 Changed the World

Caleb Thompson

September 10, 2021 at 8:38 am

this is very scary to me.


1. jaden tolle
  
  September 10, 2021 at 10:25 am
  
  ik right
  
  
2. Skydevil
  
  September 10, 2021 at 10:56 am
  
  Yes this is very scary
  
  
  1. Geneva G.
    
    October 14, 2021 at 2:53 pm
    
    This was a very sad moment in time but we need to remember the people that sacrificed themselves to save us and the people that died during this event. It was sad but at least it brought us closer together. I wonder what the world would be like if 9/11 never happened?..
    
    
    1. Parker
      
      December 10, 2021 at 11:46 am
      
      Yes that is a good thing to rember…
      
      
3. Clayton Tidwell
  
  September 14, 2022 at 1:39 pm
  
  We will all remember 9/11, a very important moment in our life, and we honor the ones who sacrificed their lives to save others in there.
  
  
4. Boris Timgum
  
  May 13, 2023 at 12:55 pm
  
  It changed the world forever, it is infact a painful memory to remember
  
  
JJ

September 10, 2021 at 10:56 am

I feel bad for all the families that had family and friends die.


1. Spell right
  
  May 27, 2022 at 4:36 am
  
  i feel bad for all the people and their family and friends that died
  
  
  1. John
    
    September 6, 2022 at 4:49 am
    
    9/11 is tragic and it will always be remembered though I have to say that saying 9/11 changed the word is quite an overstatement. More like how it changes America in certain ways and the ones responsible for it but saying something like what you said makes it sound like it was Armageddon or something.
    
    
    1. Robert
      
      September 15, 2023 at 12:09 pm
      
      Whether or not those of us in other countries like it, for the last several decades and certainly still in the current time, when something changes the USA in significant ways that impact policy, legislation, education, the economy, health care, etc. (not to mention the ways in which public opinion drives the American political machine), the US’s presence on the international stage means those changes ripple outward through their foreign policy, treatment of both residents/citizens of the USA and local people where the USA has a military, economic and/or other presence around the world.
      
      The complex web of international agreements, alliances, organizational memberships, and financial interdependency means that events that happen locally often have both direct and indirect implications, short and long term, around the world, for individuals and for entire segments of society.
      
      As for the direct results of 20 years of military response to 9/11 on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, it certainly changed their world.
      
      
LarryO

September 10, 2021 at 11:12 am

The original BU 9/11 Memorial webpage is still up:
https://www.bu.edu/remember/index.html

Reading through the remembrances from that day onward …


Jamie

September 10, 2021 at 12:32 pm

Omg scary .


Loved

September 11, 2021 at 9:07 am

I honor them all.


Hailie Eiselman

September 13, 2021 at 10:35 am

rip


catie

September 13, 2021 at 2:21 pm

I wonder how much time people had to get out before the building collapsed


1. Xavier
  
  September 30, 2021 at 3:47 pm
  
  the south tower collapsed in 10 seconds.
  
  
  1. Joe
    
    November 3, 2021 at 8:11 am
    
    Yes but it didnt colapse untill 56 minutes after it was hit
    
    
angelina

September 13, 2021 at 4:13 pm

Shall all the people who risked their lives, never be forgotten.


Haley Ringwald

October 1, 2021 at 2:54 pm

am i blind or was there no mention of how it actually affected the world afterwards??


1. Ethan Wyman
  
  November 5, 2021 at 12:16 pm
  
  I know right?
  
  
  1. Chloe
    
    September 1, 2022 at 1:48 pm
    
    Seriously!
    
    
Bradon

October 29, 2021 at 2:32 pm

My dad died in 9/11, He was a great pilot


1. Jaxson
  
  November 10, 2021 at 3:10 pm
  
  Wow. I’m really sorry for your loss I hope you can still go far in life even without your dad. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and let them go.
  
  
  1. A.H.
    
    September 12, 2022 at 5:05 am
    
    i dont really think you understood that comment
    
    
Arseni barsan

November 10, 2021 at 3:11 pm

i just read the story and im so sade for the dad that died . If i was there i wouls of creiyed and i saw someone in the chare that someone dad died and i felt so bad when i saw the comment but i dont know if that is real but if it is i feal bad for you if my dad died or my mom i woulld been so sade i would never get over it but this story changed my life when i read it.Also 1 thing i hoop not to any dads diead because i feel bad fo thos kids.


Arseni barsan

November 10, 2021 at 3:16 pm

yo all the dads and moms died all of them will never get forgoten every single one of them


1. Chloe
  
  September 1, 2022 at 1:48 pm
  
  Never forget, always remember
  
  
hunter

December 9, 2021 at 3:36 pm

everyone is talking about the twin towers but what about the pentagon.


1. Chloe
  
  September 1, 2022 at 1:47 pm
  
  I know, right?
  
  
grant

February 7, 2022 at 8:24 pm

it is super scary


yudha

February 10, 2022 at 12:14 am

RIP


Alisha Guzman

February 16, 2022 at 10:48 pm

Sorry for all the people who Lost their family


Courtney Goggin

February 17, 2022 at 1:03 pm

Thanks for helping me with this report, and yes so sorry for all yall who lost family


zac

March 29, 2022 at 9:42 am

scary


Chloe

September 1, 2022 at 1:46 pm

So, so sorry to all y’all who lost family


Anthony

September 9, 2022 at 6:17 pm

I am deeply sorry for anyone who lost family, friends, co workers, or anybody you once knew. This really was a tragedy to so many.


jaxson

December 1, 2022 at 1:27 pm

my dad almost died from the tower


kate

April 27, 2023 at 12:17 pm

very scary but needs too be remembered!


Nate

June 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

I have to say this is most definitely a U.S. American write up. Saying the word is an overstatement in many ways. It would be more better if you were to specifically point out you mean the US and those others involved with the attacks. Overall if we are going to be completely factual “people/individuals” are the ones who change things depending on whatever. The world changes every day since the start of time.


1. Casey
  
  September 11, 2023 at 12:25 pm
  
  While I agree with your first point, I would say that the attacks did in fact change the world. At the very least, they changed the way airline security is done everywhere.
  
  
ishyahabashica bismaulinsiya

September 11, 2023 at 10:36 am

great article,


O

January 31, 2024 at 10:41 pm

I believe that the people, who sacrificed their lives in flight 93, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania, resonated the most with me, as it could have gone anywhere, and they sacrificed themselves to save more. I am deeply sorry for all losses, but I hope we remember this crucial moment in history to learn from our mistakes in global affairs, but also honor those who sacrificed themselves in all the attacks.


Shota Akima

September 10, 2024 at 11:58 pm

This is an incident that must not be repeated.


Joseph

September 11, 2024 at 4:36 am

Sorry for the lives lost. American should learn from this tragedy that however powerful you are peace is paramount.


unknown

September 12, 2024 at 9:48 am

saddest day ever

How 9/11 Changed the World

How 9/11 Changed the World

BU faculty reflect on how that day’s events have reshaped our lives over the last 20 years

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Two Amphibians, Best Friends, Take Center Stage at Wheelock Family Theatre

Who Won Free Tickets to See Gladiator II?

Men’s Hockey Terriers and BU Pep Band Head to Belfast for Friendship Four

Pumpkin Miso Blondies

Easy Dorm-Friendly Recipes to Try for Friendsgiving

POV: How Trump’s Relationships with Saudi Arabia and Elon Musk Will Shape Foreign Policy

Who Are You Thankful For? Students Share Heartwarming Picks

History of Thanksgiving