The first i heard of 9/11, was a late night headline on the Sydney Morning Herald's site. Plane flies into tower. My first thought was "Thats a bad pilot". Back then, something so out of the normal was instantly explained away by error, mistake or bad luck.
Today, we see a fire in a mall, even a abandoned suitcase in a train station and wonder 'terrorists ?'.
The war is still ongoing. It wont end with the death of Osama Bin Laden, nor with the election of a new US president or a stabilization & US peaceful withdrawal in Iraq. (though all three would help).
It will end when the people in the back streets of Karachi, in Jakarta, Dubai and Paris refuse to give aid and support to those who would use the openness and technology of the west against its own citizens. It will end when they find no support, or cover, when popular opinion rails to expose those who would use violence against innocent civilians, whilst also holding their own leaders accountable and honest.
It will end when we stop pretending this is a mere crime, or a once off, or equally that it is something that can be bombed away, with victory counted in body bags.
It will end in our favour, but those who died on that terrible day 7 years ago, were not the first, and not the last casualties of this war, but they too like all others must be remembered.
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