9 / 11 – A DAY WHICH LIVES IN INFAMY FOREVER
(Posted 11th September 2014)
Like December 07th 1941, a day which will forever live in infamy, so has September 11th 2001 come under the same label as the events of both days changed history. Over 2.300 Americans got killed during the Pearl Harbour raid which prompted America to enter World War II and nearly 3.000 Americans and citizens of many more countries died when the Twin Towers were brought down and the Pentagon was attacked in a senseless act of mass murder by Al Qaida terrorists, prompting the launch of the War on Terror which continues to this day.
343 fire fighters of the FDNY gave their life in the line of duty as did 72 police officers of the NYPD, who rushed to the scene to help evacuate thousands of people who without that selfless sacrifice may not have survived as not long afterwards the Twin Towers came down, burying everyone still inside, including the emergency personnel trying to the very last moment to get people to safety.
Since then have thousands of troops equally lost limbs and lives in the War on Terror, from many countries, not just the US and today again is that day – regardless of one’s opinion if the subsequent decisions taken by politicians were right or wrong – to stand in silence when the moment approaches as the first jet hit the World Trade Centre. This is for all purposes a Memorial Day in its own right now, when we remember the victims of terrorism, the victims on the day and those ever since as this modern day curse reared its ugly head time and again in many countries around the world, not sparing the innocent no matter where they lived, who they were and what they believed in.
Aviation and the way we travel has fundamentally changed since the lessons of 9 / 11 were understood and absorbed, with airports turning themselves into fortresses of sorts. Hotels, shopping malls, government offices and many more public places are today guarded and access is controlled, only granted after being checked, at times only in a cursory manner – something one hopes we do not live to regret one day – and at times quite intensely, when threat levels are high and increased ‘chatter’ has been picked up before going silent, indicating an attack somewhere may be imminent.
This 13th Anniversary of the world’s biggest terrorist attacks is also a day to take stock and look at the added impact the events of that day had on our all lives. Now we suffer an almost permanent invasive spying by governments on innocent citizens, monitoring of email and messaging traffic and listening into phone calls, as we now apparently are deemed guilty until proven innocent. That not enough have governments intensified spying on other governments, even those deemed allies and ‘friendly’ by an NSA and other even murkier organizations which make Orwell’s science fiction book 1984 look like a bed time story for kids – but then it is a fine line between sheer paranoia and dutiful precautions. Yet, with all these changes to our liberties, done in the name of protecting us even if our liberties are progressively eroded, we are hardly safer today as a never ending cycle of terror prompts ever newer and more invasive and intrusive counter measures before yet another chink in the armour is found and exploited by terrorists who constantly probe and try in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Being safe has become very relative, as there is no absolute safety and every place can tomorrow be the target of another group of fanatics banded together by their desire to harm and hurt and main and kill, often for a cause no one but them seems to understand. And yet, live goes on as mankind tends to be keen on putting such memories behind them and moving on, except for those Memorial Days like 9 / 11, when year after year we take stock, remember the fallen and pay tribute to the heroes of this war, which today extends across the entire globe.
Join me later today, when 13 years ago flights AA 11 at 08.46:30 and UA 175 at 09.03:02 hit the North and South Towers respectively and when at 09.37:46 flight AA 77 crashed into the Pentagon before flight UA 93 at 10.03:11 crashed in Somerset County / Pennsylvania without the hijackers able to complete their deadly plans due to the heroic resistance of the passengers on board.
Let us bow our heads In Memoriam for the 9 / 11 victims, the victims of terror groups across the world and all those heroes who gave their lives to defend us against these criminal fanatics.
