Remembering: September 11, 2001

I was on home leave/ speaking tour from Palestine/ Israel for the month; and I'd had a layover at Newark a few days earlier, looking across the water at the Twin Towers. I considered going for a quick visit; then owing to jet lag and being unsure if I'd be back in time for my next flight, I decided to wait until my way back. I've never been through that way since. I would end up spending a full year in Iraq, before and after the war; appalled at the destruction and the suffering of the people; and eventually becoming one of the first to document what would later become known as the Abu Ghraib scandal. It often seems like yesterday. Such tremendous suffering; not only for us and the 3,000 people our country lost; but so much more so for the 1.5 million Iraqis who were killed for something they didn't do.