Today, being the anniversary of the events of 9/11, we all should pause to consider what has been going on ever since those moments. We saw on TV the victims of what can only be described as a crime against humanity and also how the usual police investigations were buried under the rush to war. Many questions remain unanswered to this day- why did NORAD stand down? Why were FBI investigators hot on the trail of the perpetrators turned away and even warned not to proceed in a 'matter that didn't concern them'? One feels that justice for the victims is something yet to come.
In the aftermath of this depressing shock, this intrusion into the very depths of our civil society and the securities that Pax Americana had hitherto ensured, we were further startled by the campaign of 'Shock and Awe' unleashed upon certain countries, with an as-yet unfulfilled promise to turn them into stable democracies. Horrendous suffering has ensued, especially for the inhabitants but also for the young soldiers being sent there, and it shows no sign of abating.
Many questions remain to be answered and the end result of many strategies remains to be seen. Yet we will have lost a very essential thing if any of this makes us value less the lives of the innocent, if we forswear compassion and faith in the benefits of the civil society and the securities it brings. If we lose this, if we allow ourselves to plumb to long-forgotten depths, then indeed the terrorists will have won. However harsh the realities of war may be, compassion is a greater truth. A truth worth clinging to in an often disorientatingly shocking world.
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