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My 9/11 moment came Saturday morning as I was driving across the Francis Scott Key Bridge from D.C. into Virginia. NPR interrupted its memorial commentary to go live from Shanksville, Pa., where a deep baritone was singing an extended, mournful version of Amazing Grace. Suddenly, the scattered clouds parted, momentarily unlocking a sky as crisp blue and sunny as the day the hijacked jetliners flew into the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon. For the first time in the weeks since the riptides of Kabul’s horrific chaos and the 9/11 anniversary fought for space in my mind, I felt genuinely, deeply sad.

Sad for the horrible losses of 9/11, of course, that continue to afflict so many families today. But also deep melancholy from memories of the mistakes, delusions and deceptions that have brought us to where we are this September 20 years later, on the brink of losing our republic. 

They were avoidable.

Did you know that the George W. Bush administration generally bru…