Remember

摘要

It is a terrible memory. A memory of four plane-loads of people, setting off on a beautiful morning but then hijacked to their deaths. A memory of thousands of innocent, unsuspecting civilians, of many nationalities, slaughtered when three planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and one side of the Pentagon; and of many more, lucky to survive but living ever since with the nightmare of that day, one year ago. It is a memory, also, of how the world looked a moment before 8.48am on September 11th 2001, and of how, by the end of that day, the world was different. A year later, much more has changed, and mostly for the better. An America that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorists wanted to frighten, proving that the world's greatest power was actually weak, vulnerable and cowardly, has shown a remarkable resolve. Its patient but determined use of military power in Afghanistan, and threat of it in Iraq, has created more fears of its strength than contempt for its weakness. Afghanistan was liberated from the Taliban, al-Qaeda's bases and forces there were destroyed or scattered, and that war-torn country managed to choose its own provisional government. An astonishingly broad alliance backed America in that war, and the two old superpower foes-Russia and China-were respectively supportive and acquiescent.