As you will see by turning the page, this book begins with an account by my old friend Dotson Rader of his experiences during the morning and afternoon of 9/11.
One year later, we got together to do an interview for the London Sunday Times Magazine about the reverberations of that event upon American life. I remember the stimulation, the kick-start if you will, that was provided by Dotson’s eloquence on the subject. Before it was over, I talked a great deal that day, and much of it is reprinted here, as well as a number of remarks I have added to what was said then and have been thinking about since.
9/11 is one of those events that will never fade out of our history, for it was not only a cataclysmic disaster but a symbol, gargantuan and mysterious, of we know not what, an obsession that will return through decades to come.
Indeed, this book, which looks to give some fresh notion of why America is in a state of war with Iraq, would have no existence without the fall of the Twin Towers, and so it seemed appropriate to begin with Dotson Rader’s description of what must have been the most surrealistic morning in the archives of New York’s history.