In that respect, England is doing it right.  America is still obsessed with 'Mohammed Atta'.  Yet, in England, no one remembers their names.

In that respect, England is doing it right. America is still obsessed with 'Mohammed Atta'. Yet, in England, no one remembers their names.

The only people who should be remembered are those innocent people whose lives were ripped away from them.  Those are the people who will be remembered on July 7th.

I remember 9/11 too. It doesn't matter where I was at the time, or what I was doing. I remember thinking in terms of realpolitik, and of the inevitability of reaping what you've so thoughtlessly sown. I never thought 9/11 was right; only that something of the sort was bound to occur sooner or later.

What I missed then was the personal element, the visceral response to an attack on your own, your people. It wasn't brought home to me till I saw the images of the shattered double-decker on Tavistock Street. I still think 9/11 was an inevitability. I think that the attacks that will follow, both here in the USA and in the UK, are inevitabilities. From the time of the first Crusades to the present, Islam and the West have been enemies at heart. For much of that time, after the death of Saladin, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th. century, up to this present day, the Islamists didn't have the means to strike back.

But the world has changed. There are no more set-piece battles between Armies. Now there are insurgents, and the effort to contain them in a world more interconnected than ever before. Insurgencies and terror attacks against civilian populations; 'armed combatants' without national affiliations; terror-cells connected to each other only by shared ideas and the desire to inflict defeat after defeat on the West; these things are only the most intimate face of war, where your enemy is the neighbour you've lived cheek by jowl with for years.

There's absolutely no reason for it to get better in the coming years, and many reasons for it to get worse. Even if the botched attempt to democratize Iraq reaches a point of stability sufficient for America and the 'coalition of the willing' to claim success of a kind, this won't cauterize the running sore of Islamist hate. They have long memories: they remember the sack of Acre and the deaths of Muslims at the hands of Crusaders. They remember every grievance they've ever held against us, fresh in the mind, as if they were new, as if they occurred yesterday. And since they refuse to forget so also they'll refuse to forgive.

I don't suppose this to be a 'clash of cultures' that will result in the extinction of either Islam or the West; but it is an agon, a struggle over foundational ideas, that will see both the West and Islam change profoundly. Our grand-children will not recognise the world we grew up in.

But then, why should they? There's nothing new under the sun, and change and death are the only two certainties of life.

What I missed then was the personal element, the visceral response to an attack on your own, your people. It wasn't brought home to me till I saw the images of the shattered double-decker on Tavistock Street

The personal element hit me alot harder than I thought it would.  Even though the sights of 9/11 were awful, and really touched me, that's nothing like what you feel when it's closer to home.  I don't know if that is a selfish thing to say or not, it is just honesty.

Insurgencies and terror attacks against civilian populations; 'armed combatants' without national affiliations; terror-cells connected to each other only by shared ideas and the desire to inflict defeat after defeat on the West; these things are only the most intimate face of war, where your enemy is the neighbour you've lived cheek by jowl with for years.

This is the worrying thing, that you don't actually know who the enemy is.  They could be people you are sat next to on the bus on your way home from work.  The lines are no longer clear, and this is their strength.  That they have integrated themselves into our lives, and they use what we have against us.  Not good.

I don't suppose this to be a 'clash of cultures' that will result in the extinction of either Islam or the West; but it is an agon, a struggle over foundational ideas, that will see both the West and Islam change profoundly. Our grand-children will not recognise the world we grew up in.

Where will it end?  That is a question that can only be answered with time.  I think there is alot worse to come before things start to get better.  If they ever do.  As you said, it will be our children, and grand-children who will no doubt also pay the price for what has happened so far.

Thanks for the comment x

... I think the way to show solidarity with the American people that lost thousands of innocent lives, including those of children, youths and elders, men and women to the outrageous attack, is by frankly speaking out our minds. The sacrifice of those lives should not be in vain, but rather it should be useful to save many lives, to prove that thinking and conscience can be stronger than terror and death.

We are not suggesting that any crime committed on Earth should be left unpunished, I simply do not have elements of judgement to accuse anyone in particular. But, if the culprits were those that the U.S. government is trying to punish and remove, there is no doubt that the way in which they are doing it will lead to the creation of altars where the alleged murderers will be worshiped as saints by millions of men and women.

It would be better to build an enormous altar to Peace where Humankind can pay homage to all the innocent victims of blind terror and violence, be it an American or an Afghan child. This is said by somebody who considers himself an adversary of the United States\' policies but not an enemy of that country, one who believes to have an idea of human history, psychology and justice.

Having come to this point there is only one more issue left to discuss. What is happening with the anthrax is absolutely incomprehensible.

Real and sincere panic has been created. The stocks of medications to fight that bacterium are being depleted. Many people are buying gas masks and other devices, some of which cost thousands of dollars.

Extravagant behavior can cause more damage than the disease. When there is an outbreak of any disease, whatever the cause, it is essential to warn the people and to provide information on the illness and the measures that should be taken to prevent it, diagnose it and fight it. Diseases are carried from one country to another in natural ways, that is, through people, animals, plants, food, insects, commercial products and a thousand other ways, without the need for anyone to produce them in laboratories.

That is how it has been historically. That is the reason for so many public-health regulations.

The chaos and the psychological reaction to anthrax have turned the American society into a hostage of those who want to hurt it, knowing beforehand that they will sow terror. On numerous occasions our country has had to face up to new diseases affecting people, plantations and herds, many of them deliberately introduced. No wonder our country has graduated 67,128 medical doctors and thousands of technicians in plant and animal health. Our people know what should be immediately done in such cases.

No other country in the world compares with the United States in the number of research centers, laboratories and medications, or the capacity to produce them or purchase them, to fight that or any other disease.

In the face of real or imaginary risk, either current or future, there is no other choice but to educate the people to cope with them. This is what the Cubans have done.

The causes that gave rise to panic should be analyzed. Certainly, it could not be said that the United States is not in risk of terrorist actions. However, I do not believe that under the present circumstances of generalized alertness, and the measures taken, any group inside or outside America could come up with a coordinated action, organized in every detail for a long time, synchronized and executed with such precision as that of September 11.

In my view the main risk may lie with individual actions, or actions carried out by very few people from inside or outside America that could cause lesser or greater damage. None can be underestimated. But as important as the preventive measures that should be taken to tackle such risks, or even more important, is to psychologically disarm the potential perpetrators. And these include those who might want to do it out of political extremism, vengeance or hatred, or a significant number of people who are frustrated, unstable or deranged who might feel tempted by the spectacular or by wishes to be the main actors of well-known events. They could drive the American people mad by sending mail with or without anthrax.

Televised presentation by Fidel Castro
Havana, November 2, 2001
emperors-clothes.com/news/castro.htm

Anger isn't the right word I am looking for, because I am not angry about it. I guess it is just an overwhelming sadness. This is the world we live in, and people think that it is ok to do these things, they think this warrents giving their lives for.

Well said. After the shock wore off from 9/11, the Bali bombing and the London and Madrid bombings, all I felt was sadness, almost overwhelming sadness. Life is such a precious gift for each and everyone of us and to think it could be squandered so easily is why it makes me sad.

Nice tribute, Sally.