Globe Trot: Twelve years on

Today is the 12th anniversary of 9/11. An important reread: Daniel Henninger’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, “I saw it all. And then I saw nothing.”

Counting the loss of 9/11.

President Barack Obama made his best case on going to war over Syria last night. It sounded as though the Tridents had been launched. And then he explained how as a commander-in-chief wanting to go to war against the Syrian regime, he was going to let that regime’s protector take charge instead. The president, bizarrely, rescued his target before firing a shot. And, not wanting to risk defeat in Congress, after outlining his arguments for strikes, then asked lawmakers to delay the vote authorizing them.

There are conflicting reports about whether or not al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria have taken the ancient Christian town of Maaloula. On Tuesday, the rebels reportedly said they would withdraw.

Should Christians in Syria be armed to protect themselves?

The Sinai is heating up. Today a pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into military targets, killing at least nine Egyptian soldiers. Last week one of the world’s oldest monasteries, St. Catherine’s on the south Sinai peninsula, closed its doors due to the deteriorating security situation

A Lebanese indie band is dancing all over presumed Arab conventions.

Japan commissioned its first nuclear power plant in 1966, but when the last active reactor at the Ohi plant shuts down for scheduled maintenance on Sept. 15, Japan will be without nuclear power for the first time since May 2012—and the country will be forced to continue relying on expensive energy imports, with global ramifications.

Listen to WORLD's Mindy Belz talk about the situation in Syria on The World and Everything in It: