9/11 changed the course of history and we are still living with the consequences

I missed the first aircraft smashing into the Twin Towers on 9/11, but I had the news on when the second aircraft struck not long thereafter. Horror doesn’t come close to describing the feeling it provoked — horror compounded by grief at the footage of people jumping from the towers to their deaths in the terrifying minutes prior to the towers crashing to the ground.

I was living in America at the time — in Los Angeles to be exact — and will never forget the palpable fear and confusion which reigned in its immediate aftermath. Streets normally teeming with traffic were eerily quiet. The world-famous Sunset Strip was completely deserted, its bars and restaurants closed and its flashing neon lights now reminiscent of an abandoned theme park.

During those initial few days immediately afterwards shock not rage or anger predominated, as America tried to get to grips with the enormity of what had just taken place and why.

Modern history did not begin with 9/11, but it did change its course in ways the men of war who used it as a pretext for the most prolonged and destructive military onslaught since World War II did not anticipate. For instead of achieving the domination and mastery of the Middle East and Central Asia, as intended, the wars unleashed after 9/11…