To The Editor:

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the worst foreign enemy attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. While there were plenty of commemorative services and programs broadcast to mark September 11th, I was disappointed not to see the major news outlets more prominently explore the historical context of the events of that fateful day.

As I remember 9/11, I recall an extremely contentious presidential election less than a year before, and a new Republican administration that was ironically posturing to remove our United States from its unnecessary foreign entanglements. I recall the newly tested president, who had been criticized for his lack of understanding of world history and current affairs, honorably speaking out to urge our population not to condemn a whole religion based upon the actions of a few. But I also remember cringing at his subsequent remark characterizing our quest to root out the terrorists and those who supported them as a "Crusade."

I recall both the meshing of our federal law enforcement (FBI) with our international intelligence (CIA) which now allows for domestic abuses by our Homeland Security Department, and the amalgamation our military intelligence tactics with our CIA tactics which brought horrors like Abu Griab that sullied our reputation with US friendly Muslim peoples and reinforced it for those Muslims who already hated us.

I can still feel the chill that ran down my spine when Donald Rumsfeld told reporters when pressed that prisoners taken abroad in the "War on Terror" where being treated in the "spirit of the Geneva Convention," but the administration did not believe that those rules applied. And when I remember the words of John McCain arguing in the US Senate against our use of torture tactics in that war that 9/11 sparked, they still bring a tear to my eye. In response to opponents who said that these terrorists are hideous people who don't play by the rules, and therefore deserve such treatment, he said: "It's not about who they are, it's about who we are."

Randi Kiely

Newtown