A day that will live in infamy

Yes, I know President Roosevelt said it about Pearl Harbor, but I am, of course, referring to September 11th 2001 when a gang of Islamic thugs was prepared to kill 3000 innocent men, women and children in the pursuit of a cause, the exact purpose of which is still slightly hazy and certainly not negotiable.

As chance would have it, I happened to be in New York City on that fateful day, about a mile from where the World Trade Center once stood. I had gone to see some dear friends in New Jersey and I had arrived at Newark airport at about 4pm the previous afternoon. Chillingly, I probably walked through the Newark concourse at about the same time as some of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 who apparently flew in at around the same time.

I remember going straight to the home of my friends, not far from Newark, just glad to be on US soil after a long flight from England, and later that night, after a splendid restaurant meal, they drove me back to my New York hotel. I know this sounds like romantic hindsight but I swear it's not. As we reached the river, just about to enter the Holland Tunnel, I looked up at the aircraft warning lights on the top of the World Trade Center and thought what an impressive sight it was. This must have been about 1am on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Never, of course, thinking in a million light years that this would be the last time I - or almost anyone else for that matter - would see those towers in all their splendour.



The next morning I got up and left my hotel in Chelsea, and wandered over to the deli on the corner. As I was queuing for a sandwich, a guy came in and said 'Hey a plane just hit the World Trade Center!' No shock, no outrage, just bewilderment because we all thought it must be a single engined private plane and wondered how the pilot could have made such a tragic mistake. Soon of course, when I returned to the TV in my hotel room, the truth became frighteningly clear and I spent the rest of the day in a New York which looked like something after a nuclear war, devoid of traffic, with deserted streets and just the National Guard patrolling the city and stopping any of the morbidly curious heading off towards the scene of devastation.

Of course those hijackers, along with 3000 (give or take) innocent people are dead. So they will never know the carnage they created. But one man does know and that is Osama Bin Laden who planned the whole thing. He is still alive. And of course, indirectly, he is responsible for even more deaths, quite apart from the Al Queda atrocities all over the globe.

Because he is responsible for the mood which 911 prompted in the United States. He is responsible for the mind set among the Bush Administration which thirsted for revenge at all costs and didn't care where they took it. For first the heavy handed blast everything in sight retaliation in Afghanistan which still did not turn up Bin Laden. And of course, responsible for the mind set which allowed the criminal invasion of Iraq in which I believe America lost its political brains. No one would have sanctioned such a foolhardy and criminal act were it not for the blood lust which still tore at the United States in its anger and grief over 911.

And over those seven years since that dreadful day, arguments have raged over what kind of a building should replace the giant towers and what kind of a memorial should it be. At last, it seems there is some kind of concensus on what form that should take. At last the survivors and relatives of the dead can begin to move on.

The bigger question is ...can America move on? In eight weeks time, the United States elects a new President and, whoever it is, Obama or McCain, left or right, I desperately hope the new President decides it is time to turn over a new page. Time for America to step out of this militaristic nightmare where they have lost friends by the million in these last few nightmare Bush years. Time to start looking at the middle east and other world issues from a diplomatic perspective at which the Americans have proved immensely capable in the past.

The United States is not going to beat Al Queda, or get revenge for 911, by invading Iran or Syria or North Korea or anyone else who obstructs America's view of the perfect world. They have lost soldiers and friends in the last few years abortive attempts to bring Iraq under the American military heel. You do not get western democracy by forcing it on people. You have to listen and learn. I hope the new incumbent of the White House realises this and maybe this will be a new dawn and America's friends in Europe will actually begin to have faith in the United States and its leadership once again