I was 12 when al-Qaida smashed four planes, ignited the twin towers and killed 3,000 innocent Americans, including my uncle.

All I knew was what my teachers told me: Islam was a religion of peace, terrorists use ignorance to garner new recruits, fear is all they can hope to achieve and it will turn out all right in the end. That was enough for me, and I felt I could identify when Alan Jackson sang, “I watch CNN, but I’m not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran.”

Then came the war in Afghanistan. The 2002 midterms followed. Then the Iraq war. And when the Democrats began yelling at President Bush in preparation for the 2004 elections, I realized I didn’t know what they were talking about. If the terrorists exploited ignorance to achieve their goals, it dawned on me that I would need education to counter them.

So as the 9/11 Commission investigated the intelligence failures leading up to the disaster, I began my own investigation. I started reading the news. I listened to NPR. I read the Quran. I discussed politics with people of different ideologies, trying to make sense of the issues from different angles. And as I began to connect the dots, 9/11 made more sense and became far more real to me than it ever was that fateful day.

After doing my homework, I am fairly sure I can make two conclusions.

First, peace on earth will not come without time and sacrifice. The attacks of 9/11 were merely the latest byproducts of a bloody struggle predating Israel and the Crusades. As the deaths continue to mount and setbacks continue to try our patience, the delusion of a quick fix will become ever more tempting. But the moment we lose our stamina – that is the moment the terrorists have won.

And second, we must never shun an opportunity to keep learning. The foreign names, the complicated timelines and the daunting number of individual groups and parties must not deter us from trying to make sense of the situation. Even if we cannot all become experts in world events, the electorate will make better decisions if it picks up a book, reads the news and asks more questions.