Remembering 9-11

Same day today, 6 years ago, the world was shocked by one of the worst terrorist attacks ever. 2 Airline planes hit both the World Trade Center Towers in New York City causing it to collapse. Another plane hit the Pentagon and another crashed in the fields off Shanksville, Pennsylvania.In the aftermath of the attack, the world as we know had changed forever. A total of 2974 souls lost their life's on that day of infamy. Another 24 person are either presumed dead or missing.

I was having a day out after work with a few of colleagues , having 'naan' at our usual hangout food court on that very night. Having just reached back to the apartment at around 10pm , Sue called on my handphone informing of an attack on United States. She asked me to turn on the TV. Having no Astro at that time , I told her I don't have CNN access only to be told its being aired LIVE on all the terrestrial channels.

I was just awestruck at the images I saw on TV. By the time I turned on the TV , both towers were already hit and news were just filtering out of the Pentagon attack. I just slumped in front of the TV for the next few hours thinking of whats gonna happen next. Too many questions started lingering in my mind. Is the start of worst things to come? What is happening to the world now? There I was watching history being written as it happened.

As the ashes slowly settled down, more related news started to appear. Stories about how the 4th flight, United Airlines Flight 93 which was originally intended to crash on the Capitol Hill was thwarted by the heroics of the flight passengers and crashed. Stories about the courageous rescue efforts by the emergency personnel at the World Trade Center. And more stories that followed about the inefficiency of the various US agencies in handling the situation on that day. Suddenly the world's only Super Power nation looked so vulnerable and weak! Never had they been in such a situation since Pearl Harbour.

Whatever the failings there can be, we have all learned a lesson from this. Nothing remains the same forever. Things can get better to worst in a split second. Events that happened thousands of kms away have adverse effect on our lifes and future. I belong to the generation that escaped the wrath of the 2 World Wars and even the Communist Insurgency. So going thru this served as a reality check. Suddenly the world seemed so dangerous and volatile that your life is not safe as we grew up to believe it was. Even in Malaysia!

In remembering this day, let us all pray for the lost souls. The inevitable reality is, this will not be the last attack we will ever see in our life. The world is definitely going to the dogs. So while we are still here , lets make the best out of this life!

Surely for the next few days, the TV channels will be inundated with various reports, documentaries and movies related to the 9-11 which is fair enough. I have watched my fair share of those as well. Of the best, there are 3 movies in my opinion that really portrayed the tragedy without much hoohaa of the usuall Hollywood fanfare. The best of the lot would be Fahrenheit 9-11 by Michael Moore. Followed by the Nicholas Cage starer World Trade Center and the less known United 93.

The are also the usuall conspiracy theories surrounding the 9-11 but that itself will take a few more pages of blog to start with. Maybe one day the truth if there is any will finally see the light.

May GOD bless and save us all