What have we learnt?

Anyone over 25 is likely to still have vivid memories of the horrific and tragic events of September 11, 2001 – the day when, it is no understatement to say, life in America and in many other places changed.

Till that day, the US had never experienced a major attack by a foreign enemy on mainland soil – not even during the Second World War. Suddenly, within the space of a few hours, some 3,000 Americans lost their lives and two of their most iconic buildings were reduced to rubble.

To compound matters, most of it was captured on camera. Many of us watched television screens in disbelief when the second aircraft ploughed into the South Tower. Many of us watched with horror as people dived to their deaths out of the buildings, propelled by the fireballs behind them, and as both towers collapsed.

This was not just a terrorist attack on an unprecedented scale, but, in the relatively new age at that time of 24-hour news, also a media spectacle – making it a major embarrassment for the US government, which had little idea of how to react.

George W. Bush, who had been in power for less than a year, was up till then a President under fire for his penchant for holidays and domestic affairs. September 11 made him a foreign policy politician overnight.

Trouble is, together with the trigger-happy Dick Cheney, he was ill-prepared to take on such a role. The anger may have been justified, but much of the action the US government took in the following months and years was not.

It was to be expected that the US would take steps to make the country safer, but completely unacceptable that the then President of the ‘land of the free’ launched a knee-jerk “war on terror” and sanctioned the holding of prisoners without trial.

Not to mention counterproductive. Today much of the world will be remembering the 10th anniversary of the collective death of 3,000 people who were mainly Americans – among them the heroic members of the New York City Fire Department.

However, the world will never mark any anniversary of more than 5,000 individual US troops who have perished since the so-called war on terror began. That is the sad, lone task of their families.

And are we really in a position to say what happened in Iraq, where Mr Bush ill-advisedly concentrated much of his troops’ efforts, made the world a more stable place? Or did military intervention there continue to sow the seeds of anti-American sentiment and perhaps even delay the onset of the most welcome Arab Spring which the region experienced this year?

It is all very well having the trophy killings of Saddam Hussein and, belatedly, Osama bin Laden. But what tangible measures have been taken to reduce inequality, poverty and hate in those parts of the world that breed terrorism?

The election of Barack Obama in 2008, and the departure of Mr Bush, brought hope of a new approach. So far, however, the US President has, rather ironically, been hampered by domestic affairs as the economic crisis which he inherited refuses to loosen its grip.

Today it is fitting to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, and to the families they left behind, on September 11. But this would all be in vain if we do not also make a concerted effort to find ways forward if we want to live in a more peaceful world.