Five years later....

There is no running away from the requisite post about the 9/11 attacks today, and how it changed the world. I cannot believe it has already been five years , it seems like another lifetime.

Let me start by expressing my condolences once again to all the families who lost their loved ones on 9/11. May God help you move on with your life and bring you patience. Amen

This year there seems to be a concerted effort by all : media, governments, bloggers etc... .to ask 'how has your life changed after 9/11' ? or whether the world changed on that day ?

On that day, I was on vacation in the ME, it was afternoon and I had gone to visit a friend to use her internet connection. We had CNN- the international edition as background noise in the living room , and when I glanced up from the monitor, I saw the breaking news banner and footage of the first tower being hit. It's all so hazy now but for a split second I thought that CNN was advertising some new movie with a similar theme like Independence Day. So I did not pay attention and continued checking emails. The broadcast was continuing as H walked in with our late lunch, and we both looked and each other and grabbed the remote control to change to Al Jazeera TV. As I realised what had happened on the other side of the world and saw the second plane hitting the south tower 'live', while flipping between the various satellite channels only to settle on AJ and CNN while listening to the frantic analysis , speculations then accusations about it being an AQ signature attack; I felt deep sadness for the enormous loss of life and a deeper foreboding of the dark times awaiting .I imagined how a wounded giant would be hitting left and right in retaliation. I could not really blame that giant, because it had been delt a shocking blow yet I was praying that the giant had not been blinded and would see the truth.

Did I think the attacks were justified ? certainly not !
Do I think that this is terrorism ? Absolutely yes.
Do I sympathise with Americans? of course - we are all flesh and blood.

Certainly many countries rallyied around the US and expressed outrage, including Libya; messages of goodwill poured from all over the world.
But it would be hypocritical to say that this event is the most important one in history for the whole world, simply because for some people it may be their birthday or wedding anniversary, or they could be living in some village that never heard of America /Bin Ladin /Islamists/Bush or for others they could have experienced tragic attacks on their own countries and therefore have their own demons and ground zero.

Yet from my forrays into the blogosphere I'm aware that people have not forgotten and that 9/11 ( and its ramifications) are still a very hot topic and a raw wound. That means it has been a painful experience for America and the world ( Afghanistan, Iraq etc...) .

For example :

"Five years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, killed 2,973 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and New York, the country's mood is awash in emotions, balancing resolve with vulnerability, a need to remember with a desire to move on.[...] "People still talk about 9/11 as they did the first few months," said the Rev. Dr. Stuart Hoke of New York's Trinity Church. "It is one of the conversation topics at every event we attend -- every dinner party, every church gathering, it's still talked about with a great deal of intensity."" courtesy of
CNN

If this is so fresh and so painful for a one day attack ( not being callous here ) can you imagine how someone feels for years and years with no end in sight ? America has the right to seek justice but so have other nations.

On the personal level, nothing much changed for me (*) here DNA's words come in useful "[w]here I was raised, things like “civil liberties” were nothing but fancy text-book stuff. When push comes to shove, the po-lees have top dabs, whether you like it or not. It isn’t nice, it isn’t fair, but you get used to it, and you move on. "

(*) Disclaimer that is not meant as an offense but rather a comment on the quality of my life .



A lot of decisions were taken in the aftermath of the tragic attacks and the US wowed war on terror. I'm not here to judge the extend of the success of this war, but for many people in the US, I guess life has changed : the following are some statistics compiled by the BBC.

For others in the US life changed dramatically with some sort of witchhunts taking place after 9/11 .

Here is an unusual testimony which frankly disconcerted me:

I was an initial responder at the the World Trade Center. My son was six then. I didn't get a pin, even, and my son is not eligible for free camp and/or college scholarships, unlike the "9-11 families."
I am a woman. I am neither NYPD or NYFD altho' I took care of them. I called their unions to ask only that they help me put up a Christmas tree. I was physically incapable. Neither they nor the "9-11 families" responded. They also didn't respond further down the line when we were literally hungry.
I don't know why we aren't a "9-11 family" and I reckon my now 11 yo will wind up in foster care when my lungs give utheir final suck.
Some of us wish we were in those buildings.
Cynthia, Manhattan

(NO Comment)


An interesting poll/study was brought to my attention ( hattip you know who you are so if you want to be mentioned email me or say it out loud in the comment section :) ) . The article is called The Terrorism Index , from Foreign Policy and the Centre for American Progress.

Moneyshot :


"Despite today’s highly politicized national security environment, the
index results show striking consensus across political party lines. A bipartisan
majority (84 percent) of the index’s experts say the United States is not
winning the war on terror. Eighty-six percent of the index’s experts see a world
today that is growing more dangerous for Americans. Overall, they agree that the
U.S. government is falling short in its homeland security efforts. More than 8
in 10 expect an attack on the scale of 9/11 within a decade. These dark
conclusions appear to stem from the experts’ belief that the U.S. national
security apparatus is in serious disrepair.[...]Respondents sharply criticized
U.S. efforts in a number of key areas of national security, including public
diplomacy, intelligence, and homeland security. Nearly all of the departments
and agencies responsible for fighting the war on terror received poor marks. The
experts also said that recent reforms of the national security apparatus have
done little to make Americans safer. [..]The index’s experts were similarly
critical of most of the policy initiatives put forward by the U.S. Congress and
President George W. Bush since September 11. Eighty-one percent, for instance,
believe the detention of suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,
negatively affects the war on terror. The index’s experts also disapprove of how
America is handling its relations with European allies, how it is confronting
threatening regimes in North Korea and Iran, how it is controlling the spread of
weapons of mass destruction, and its dealings with failing states, to name just
a few. [..]To win the battle of ideas, the experts say, America must place a
much higher emphasis on its nonmilitary tools. More than two thirds say that
U.S. policymakers must strengthen the United Nations and other multilateral
institutions. At the same time, the experts indicate that the U.S. government
must think more creatively about threats. Asked what presents the single
greatest danger to U.S. national security, nearly half said loose nukes and
other weapons of mass destruction, while just one third said al Qaeda and
terrorism, and a mere 4 percent said Iran. Five years after the attacks of
September 11, it’s a reminder that the greatest challenges may still lie
ahead."


The war on terrorism although netting a lot of suspects does not seem to be faring well because it created more terrorists. It is worth noting that now President Bush is pushing for military tribunals for 'suspected terrorists', after admitting he okayed secret CIA prisons ( which were denied before) and tough interrogation techniques ( aka torture I guess no matter what he says ). Here is an analysis on why he may have changed his tune .



From all the above it looks like the results in the years to come will remain unchanged, because as already said you have to treat the cause and not the symptom. By treating the symptom you are giving an analgesic and putting a bandaid. This would only make the disease flare up stronger and deadlier.

I'll leave you with the words of Hani Hamdi an Arab -American from Boston also taken from the BBC 'have your say' forum ( where you can find hundreds of testimonies)

I'm a person of Arab origin living in the States.
9/11 was a despicable, horrifying incident. Unfortunately, I believe the US is less secure now.
Terrorism is not here because 1.2 billion Muslims hate US democracy.
Mid-East terrorism is spreading because US foreign policy is seen as supporting: 1) Israeli territorial expansion beyond its 1967 borders; 2) 40 years of occupation for millions of palestinians; 3) dictatorial and oppressive regimes in the middle east; and 4) the Iraq war which killed over 100,000 innocent civilians.
Terrorism will be cured by restoring strong moral credibility, and by surgically eliminating terrorists. This is not the US strategy today.
Hani Hamdi, Boston, United States

The above combined with action from our side in the ME against those warped minds would be the road map for the war on terror in a nutshell. May the world never witness again such an atrocity. Amen .