Montreal Gazette - When 'unthinkable' became the new normal

Sept. 11, 2001, was a day like no other New York City, or indeed America, had seen before. "Psychologically, it was a hard blow," says Harold Waller, a political-science professor and director of the North American studies program at McGill University.

It wasn't simply that America had been attacked on its own soil for the first time since Pearl Harbour, or that terrorists had burrowed deep into U.S. communities and trained at American flying schools. Or that they targeted the iconic Twin Towers, in New York City, the cultural and economic hub of American life. "With 9/11, the enemy was rather vague, not even a country.

"If terrorists could attack New York, then they could attack Los Angeles, Chicago, or Miami, anywhere, and not necessarily in the same way," says Waller. "The carefree lifestyle of Americans in relation to security ended."