This article is part of The Week 's special section celebrating the magazine's 20 years in print. It originally appeared in the April 16 issue The Week was born amid a strange stillness. In April 2001, the furor over the contested 2000 election had subsided, and George W. Bush was just 100 days into what one of our early covers called "The quiet presidency." The nation was at peace, and the partisan rancor of the Clinton impeachment was, for the moment, in remission. It was so placid that summer, in fact, that newspapers and TV news paid inordinate attention to several shark attacks on the East Coast; there were times we struggled to find the meaty, idea-driven debates that are the heart of the magazine. But in this stretch of historical flatwater, the faint sound of rapids could be heard. In our July 6, 2001, issue, the Briefing in our magazine was headlined "Osama bin Laden's war on America."