It was one of the busiest periods in my career working round the clock in the New York offices of a major US law firm, strolling back and forth to my hotel on Fifth Avenue, often in the middle of the night. And when I entered my hotel room I was usually too wired to sleep, so instead I watched TV and sometimes ordered in food, digesting it together with the news I was watching. The news was not good. The news was gut wrenching terrible that week with many innocent casualties, dying in a collapsing building, firemen coming to their rescue. Switching to other channels was not much better either, with an endless parade of witnesses and experts taking the stand in the Simpson trial. Yes, it was the month of April 1995 and the nation was trying to wrap its head around about what had just happened in Oklahoma City. I distinctly remember the various experts on Larry King the night of the attack, outlining in very precise terms why Muslim fundamentalists hated America and in turn I tried to assess the long term implications of a Muslim attack in the American heartland. If it were indeed Muslim fundamentalists acting out of hate it was surely alarming news as it would mean we would be engaged in an almost unending battle with an enemy that could strike anywhere at any time. Surely a terrifying prospect. Imagine the relief when we figured out it was a bunch of right-wing nutbars with a poorly defined agenda and very limited resources. It was the 1990s, and we had taken care of an inconvenience by arresting the guilty, bringing them to trial and we could redirect our worries or concerns to other more easily quantifiable manners, like the stock market, something that would hold us in an odd spell for quite a number of years to come.

So much so that money and stocks defined much of my conversation with friends and family. I was therefore convinced that the gravity in the voice of my brother-in-law who called me around 7:00 AM two years ago today, was undoubtedly related to shareholders being given another haircut in a telecoms deal in which we had both invested. “Have you heard the news?” No, but I was worried that I would lose another piece of my already battered portfolio. “Turn on the TV, there has been an attack on the World Trade Center in New York”. As soon as I had prepared Nora’s bottle of milk I switched on the TV and I saw the towers engulfed in smoke. Almost immediately I looked for my internal relief mechanism telling me it was not as bad as it seemed and that just as six years ago in Oklahoma there would be a mitigating explanation that would allow us to go on as usual with our lives without any undue worries. It may not even have been a conscious effort to get that relief, the mind no doubt instructs you to do so out of self-protection: it’s not that bad, don’t worry. And yes, the towers were standing it seemed, smoke; sure everyone could move out, things would be fine. Being on the Pacific Coast I had initially missed out on the gravity but within minutes I realized that one tower had collapsed, the other was collapsing, the Pentagon was on fire and a passenger plane over Pennsylvania had gone missing. And this time it was not some wayward militia member. This time something that we had seen coming as early as 1995 or even before that, had materialized. The Muslim zealots had taken their war to mainland America.

The point I guess I am trying to make is that I do not see September 11 as a turning point, nor was Oklahoma a turning point and neither was the bombing of the WTC in 1993. The dreadful events of September 11 were just one more installment in a slow but steady build-up of an inevitable conflict that can probably trace its origins years back. In a way it is galling to realize that in 1995 we were well aware of the danger, we could even name it and we could analyze it to the point that we understood the exact threat and its implications. Yet, it required a massive attack on American soil killing over 3,000 people before the US was able to come to grips with what was facing them. And even now, two years after the fact there are politicians, segments of the media, academics and other punditry who are not willing to see what we are up against, in fact they argue against the very people that have taken on the task to fight this evil, for that is what it is. Even key US allies that only half a century ago were able to rid themselves of tyranny are now pacifying those who propagate an equally malicious form of tyranny. We may have taken the war to Iraq, and Muslim hatred may be unrelated to what is unfolding in Israel today and we may have beefed up our security in a way as to prevent attacks similar to those on that day two years ago, but the enemy is ever so resourceful and has access to a seemingly unlimited supply of combatants, in the Middle East, in Asia, in Europe and in North America. Dead or alive, the bearded martyr holds many in a spell that is hard to break, in fact the mere allusion to his being may inspire horrors that we can not even begin to imagine today. The battle has only just begun and I am afraid it will be a very long one.

There are numerous links I can direct you to today, but most of you will have already discovered the sites that they feel represent what they need to commemorate and what they want to read on a day like this. Today I will only link you to Christopher Hitchens and while it is not exactly one of his best pieces, the message he has is very clear: commemorations are for when the war is over and this one has just started. He’s absolutely right and going forward we should take his advice:

What is required is a steady, unostentatious stoicism, made up out of absolute, cold hatred and contempt for the aggressors, and complete determination that their defeat will be utter and shameful.

Of course, I do commemorate and I do think of those fallen. But more than that I have now learned to think in terms of those that are going to fall and in doing that I heed what Hitchens says. The war has indeed barely begun.

First published on September 11, 2003 on Peaktalk.