can you talk about that? yeah, you know, just the other day, because of the anniversary, i asked my students at rice university where i teach what year they were born, and i was startled to be reminded they weren t alive on 9/11. this is ancient history where perhaps the events of world war ii are ancient history in my time, yet they live in a post-9/11 world. the united states became a kingdom of fear in many ways. yes, there was that short period where the american flags prevailed and we had unity and george w. bush had 70% approval rating, but 9/11 made the bush administration focus on foreign policy and building what is called will union astonianism.