4 Years On

I was in Zellini's cafe in Randwick, when it happened - almost exactly 4 years ago.

Everyone was intently fixated on the TV hung high in the corner, many gaping at the wanton destruction that seemed too surreal to be actually happening before their eyes.

I could barely understand the gravity of the reality of what I was witnessing on the screen.

***

2 words to described my mixed state of emotions: Tragedy. And injustice.
(Yes, drama queen. Whatever.)

Taking a brief glance through the myriad of memorial sites, it is difficult to ignore the grief that surrounds the people who survived to bear the grief of the ones they lost - in an act they had no control over or responsibility for.

If there were any lessons the world could have learnt from 9/11, what would they be?

That the communication among US Intelligence needs to be more centralised? That making false connections between Iraq and 9/11 as a justification to launch the Iraq war makes you a popular American president? That the violence and suffering in Iraq is worth it, and vital to the future security of America? That a democratic paradise can emerge from placing troops indefinitely and enforcing the construction of a run-of-the-mill western conception of representative democracy?

***

America did in Afghanistan, what had to be done and did it well. The bad news, however, is that these successes have not won new friends for the United States outside Afghanistan. In fact, the effectiveness of the American campaign may have made some parts of the world hate America more than they did before.

- Salman Rushdie, in a New York Times article February 4, 2002

***
Rest in peace.


Technorati: 9/11, Iraq, Al-Qaeda