The beginning of history?

The concept of history's end was made popular by Francis Fukuyama a few years ago with the publication of his book, The End of History and the Last Man. A few days ago, a different thought occurred to me: the start of history. Or, more accurately, the re-starting of history.

I had the chance to hear an interesting lecture in Washington a few days ago. The speaker mentioned the current debate and controversy surrounding the Iraq war, and said she'd like to speak about the "bigger picture" of the Middle East situation and America's role in foreign affairs. Immediately, she launched into a detailed explanation of the Bush Administration's understanding of and purpose in the struggle against terrorism and Islamic extremism, beginning with the events of September 11.

This was nothing unusual per se, but the juxtaposition of her sentences triggered a thought: "Did history re-start on September 11?" Ever since then, you see, discussion in America of foreign affairs, and much of domestic affairs, has been oriented to and from 9/11. Almost every conversation assumes 9/11 as the starting point, the baseline of consideration. America is now overwhelmingly shaped and defined by the war on terror which was jumpstarted by the events of that day. To listen to most journalists, pundits, and commentators, today's international situation can be explained by the events of the last three years.

This seems a rather odd state of affairs. Certainly 9/11 was a significant event. It brought precipitously to boil a problem--Islamic extremist terrorism--that had been simmering for years. It was one of the clearest indicators that old ways of looking at international affairs had to change. I can't help thinking, though, that Americans treat September 11 as more of a breaking point than it should be. If we have to deal with new threats, we must still remember that these threats rise out of conflicts hundreds of years old. After 9/11, we still live in the same world as before, with more or less the same international players, and pretty much the same alignments. We must analyze the current Middle East crisis in light of its place in history, and not as a completely new occurrence. History hasn't yet ended, and it hasn't re-started either.