Perspectives on Modern World History, 9/11

I love this book because it comes with pictures, its font is huge, and it has flow. It provides me with some pieces of the event that I missed before. Even if you don't like flow or pictures, you'll love the huge fonts.


A few points from the book:

- It starts with how the plot was conceived and developed. Apparently, one of the meetings had by the hijackers was held in KL and didn't go unnoticed. According to the book, they were even photographed by the Malaysian intelligence. Ha. Just like Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots backwards.

- Also surprising, this group known as the Hamburg cell was formed in Hamburg, Germany (you thought they'd only hold their summit somewhere closer to their backyard), and they were able to live and meet in the open because the German government was reluctant to target radical mosques, fearing accusations of religious persecution due to its Nazi past.

- The book continues with the responses following the attack, from Bush addressing America and asking all nations to join what he called civilization's fight, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," to everyone calling for restraint -- the usual we read in the media.

- Chapter 2 talks about the controversies surrounding the attack, including the conspiracy theories, which I must say were not really peeled convincingly. Even Wikipedia sounds like it has better arguments.

- But below discussions are pretty interesting under the chapter:

• US intelligence failures made the US vulnerable on 9/11. Who would've thought the US were that underfunded, among other things? America in movies are all sophisticated and heroes, they even fought off aliens and Godzillas! (I assume they did. I didn't watch these movies.) Another thing to ponder: some of the hijackers were already under the US intelligence watch list prior to the attack.
• US cultural excess and foreign policy breed discontent among would-be terrorists.
• Globalization did not lead to the attacks of 9/11. Many Muslim nations continue to remain isolated and have not even embraced free trade. Here come the sad numbers of these nations' economic statistics. Sad, sad humbling numbers.
  

- The most gripping chapter of the book has to be Chapter 3, which is also its last: Personal Narratives of 9/11.

• The first narrative is the final preparation notes belong to Mohamed Atta, found in his luggage. God, it's just sad that they're full of prayers and encouragement... to do something inhumane. Reading the notes is essentially peeking into their minds in their last hours, and it's chilling.
• Then there were equally horrifying personal accounts of the survivors: a journalist whose office was across the twin towers, a firefighter, a rookie police officer, and a rescue worker.
• When they talked about the jumping men of September 11, I held my head with two hands, not being able to bear the thought of five people plunging from the 100th floor. Little did I realize five was not really the correct number... As the firefighter Robert Reeg put it, there were "raining bodies..." How do you process that? How do you process the fact that even if one person plunges off a 400-metre-tall building because there was no one to help them?
• The rookie police officer Nancy Ramos-Williams was choking on thick ashes from the collapsed buildings, trying to drag her injured leg out of the area, not being able to breathe or see a thing. Another police officer helped drag her to safety and kept telling her, "Don't give up, don't give up," which is a pretty good daily reminder should we need one.
  

This book was written prior to bin Laden's death, and no accounts of the war in Iraq told either -- well, this is titled 9/11 -- but we still have Wikipedia for those.