What Does a 99-cent Bic Lighter Tell Us About the Bush War on Terrorism?
” On September 22, 2001, just 11 days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Arlington, I had to fly. I had actually wanted to fly on September 11, and in fact had a ticket on the 3:00pm American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK. As we all know, that flight never made it off the ground as hours earlier four California-bound flights, two on American and two on United, were hijacked as part of a coordinated suicide mission to attack the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. Stranded in Los Angeles, my wife and I (out there for the annual Prime Time Emmy Awards for our series, “The Awful Truth”), were awakened that morning by my wife’s mother, calling us from Flint at 6:15 a.m., L.A. time. I answered the phone and heard her say that “New York was under attack, New York is at war.” I remember thinking, “So what’s new,” but she suggested we immediately turn on the TV. I fumbled for the remote and switched on the hotel room TV. And there it was. The
