4 minutes to remember - 9/11 Tribute

The Extraordinary Achievements of Ordinary People

Eight years ago, 2993 people lost their lives in Manhattan.The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word "terrorism," which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it.

As the world marks the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks Friday, the resurrection effort at Ground Zero continues to move at a snail's pace. In photo: In this file image of an artist's rendering released by Silverstein Properties on Sept. 7, 2006, three proposed designs for the remaining towers at the World Trade Center site in New York are shown alongside the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, left, in downtown Manhattan's skyline. (AP Photo)


The liberals declared that poverty was the root cause of terrorism. That notion was ridiculous on its face - most of the 9-11 terrorists turned out to be university-educated, middle class Saudis - but the idea of being permitted to spend large sums of taxpayer money fighting poverty is always attractive to liberals. They kept banging the drum for a program to fight global poverty in the name of fighting terrorism. The idea that poverty causes terrorism became so pervasive that someone had to write a book disproving the link between poverty and terrorism. Terrorists are better educated and from wealthier families than the typical person in the same age group of the societies from which they originate.

If poverty doesn't cause terrorism, what does? It's all very well to say that terrorists use terrorism because "it works," but what are they trying to bring about that they couldn't accomplish in other ways that did not expose them to as much personal peril? Terrorism, like so many other human activities, is a means of gaining power, wealth, or both. It's well known that liberals can persuade themselves not to worry about harmful consequences of their actions -many more people have died from tobacco-related illnesses than from terrorism. There should be no difficulty in accepting terrorism as a means of self-aggrandizement provided that it can be shown that in certain circumstances, terrorism is a plausible means to achieve power and/or wealth.

Al-Qaida Has Revived and Spread

Al-Qaida has revived, extended its influence, and has the capacity to carry out a spectacular strike similar to the September 11 attacks on the world, one of the world's leading security think tanks warned yesterday.
There is increasing evidence "that 'core' al-Qaida is proving adaptable and resilient, and has retained an ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the western world despite the attrition it has suffered", said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "The threat from Islamist terrorism remains as high as ever, and looks set to get worse," it added.

"The US and its allies have failed to deal a death blow to al-Qaida; the organisation's ideology appears to have taken root to such a degree that it will require decades to eradicate," it continued.

The warning came in the latest annual review of world affairs by the IISS. Its strategic survey paints a bleak picture of global security in the future and warned:
Mr Inkster, a former director of MI6 said there was much debate within al-Qaida after the September 11 attacks on the US. Many of its supporters believed the operation was a "tactical error", Mr Inkster said, because it led to the removal of a safe base - Taliban-controlled southern Afghanistan.

But the recent foiling of an alleged plot in Germany and the alleged airliner plot last year in Britain showed that al-Qaida had the ambition to carry out spectacular attacks while "strengthening" its "position in the badlands of north-west Pakistan", he added. Pakistani groups were "aligning themselves with al-Qaida and the process of radicalisation within Islamic countries was continuing apace", he warned.
11 September 2001, 26 November 2008 and repeated Mumbai bomb blasts are enough examples to define terrorism. Countries across the globe are waging wars to combat terrorism and its perpetrators. Unfortunately, the wars are in vain. What is forgotten is the age old formula of love and compassion, which Jesus, Buddha and in our time Gandhi and other great thinkers taught us. No wonder, their teachings continue to live amongst us despite their voices continuously suppressed.

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