All is not lost, despite a terror-filled past 20 years

Everyone remembers where they were when the twin towers fell. Twenty years later, the world is a very different place as a result of those terrifying images which will live with us forever. It is not often it can be argued a single event changed the course of history. The fall of Afghanistan in the past few weeks is the latest reminder that the events of September 11, 2001, are still being felt today.

That day 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four planes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.

Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A

third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington DC, and the

fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major US initiatives to combat terrorism.

The insidious tentacles of terrorism curl widely and the impact of 9/11 was, as we remember today, felt directly in Portsmouth, Gosport and Hayling Island.

The attack led to the United States’s longest war – 20 years seeking revenge for the atrocities. The US eventually tracked down its number one target, Osama Bin Laden, but has yet to succeed in its wider aim of eliminating the threat to international security from militant groups.

Britain of course became wrapped up in that mission in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East with hundreds

of service personnel paying the ultimate price in the neverending War on Terror.

Have we learned anything?

Was the West’s response to 9/11 justified? Canon Bob White, who leads today’s service of commemoration in Portsmouth, has just about got it right. We must continue to work with others to build better communities and bring hope where there was fear and mistrust.