Bill Keller's Unfinished 9/11 Business [and ours]

The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks brought more than enough opportunities to revisit that day of shock and awe. Almost everyone felt the need to get his or her long view out there, and conventional wisdom got another coat of pitch to protect it from the elements.

I refrained from contributing, and after overindulging at the media buffet in the week leading up to the actual anniversary, from consuming as well.

Former NYTimes executive editor Bill Keller relieved his pent up reflections [while executive editor, he was not allowed to express his own mind] in the magazine section of the Times on Sunday 9/11. I get that on Saturday, and Mr. Keller's piece might just have been the dish that caused me to put down my fork.

Mr. Keller accepts responsibility for his lapses of attention during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, although he wraps his actions in the insulating company of many other smart people who also should have known better. He does not excuse himself or his paper for abdicating journalistic standards, but also does not fully acknowledge the terrible collateral damage that negligence facilitated.

Mr. Keller's most insightful passage describes the blowback affecting the newspaper's reputation among liberals: "For years, our early stories hyping Iraq's menace (and to a lesser extent what people like me wrote on the opinion pages) fed a suspicion, especially on the left, that we were not to be trusted". He seems regretful for having helped readers realize that they shouldn't depend on what they read in the paper, which I find ironic.

Not everyone who beat the drums of war in 2002 is afforded such a space for their confession, and I hope Mr. Keller finds forgiveness on those pages. We should each look back and examine our own actions and rationales during those days, and try to understand our own lapses.

Much business from 9/11 remains unfinished, and more yet from the subsequent ten years - actions and inactions in response to the 9/11 attacks that have harmed innocent people around the world, and diminished our freedom and integrity here at home. We can't square those accounts with drone attacks. Admitting mistakes and making amends shows strength in greater measure than loud proclamations of love for the homeland.