9/11

Channel 4's programme 9/11: State of Emergency was an appropriate reminder of just how devastating the attacks were on 9/11 to the USA's feeling of security at the top level and the personal tragedies and survival for those ordinary people caught up in what was the USA's worst terrorist attack. Watch it on Channel 4 OD. Particularly revealing are Condoleezza Rice's comments. As National Security Adviser she was crucial to the response and her interview is fascinating for the processes put into action (Cold War links here abound) and the chaos that was unleashed at the heart of the world's most powerful government. If you watch it, please add your own comments.

PS: Here is the angry analysis of the consequences of 9/11 by the Independent's Robert Fisk. This extract from his conclusion shows his point of view pretty clearly:
"Anniversaries are newspaper and television events. And they can have an eerie habit of coalescing together to create an unhappy memorial framework. Thus do we commemorate the Battle of Britain – a chivalric episode in our history – and the Blitz, a progenitor of mass murder, to be sure, but a symbol of innocent courage – as we remember the start of a war that has torn our morality apart, turned our politicians into war criminals, our soldiers into killers and our ruthless enemies into heroes of the anti-Western cause."