The Rest of the Story, Read by the Rest of the World

Since our shameful, self-loathing local newspapers will be spinning this event as an "unprovoked US attack on innocent, law-abiding terrorists, exercising their First Amendment Rights," here is what truth-loving people all over the world are beginning to reflect on:

From the Daily Telegraph of Australia:

Remembering when our world changed
September 11, 2006 12:00

IT IS impossible to avoid the observation: today is the anniversary of a moment when the world was irretrievably altered.

September 11 is more than a date, more than a mere mark on a calendar. It is a bitter brand, a disfiguring scar, a blight. A date which – as US wartime President Franklin Roosevelt said of December 7, 1941 – "will go down in infamy".For on this day five years ago, a monstrous attack was launched and, as a consequence, a new worldwide campaign in the war between good and evil was necessitated.

There have been other days when history sustained a convulsive jolt – December 7, 1941, as mentioned, when the Japanese launched their unprovoked attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbour; perhaps June 6, 1944, D Day; August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped. And days such as November 11, Remembrance Day; the Fourth of July, Independence Day; Bastille Day – also etched in universal consciousness – signal days in the never-ending struggle between right and wrong.

But September 11 is unique. And everyone who was at the age of consciousness on that day in 2001 will remember exactly what they were doing when news of the murderous attacks on New York's famous World Trade Centre towers was first reported. They will remember also exactly how they felt in the aftermath.

And this morning, as news reports remind us of that terrifying day, the same hollow feeling will rise again. It was a sense of raging uncertainty, as if the very fabric of the world itself was in danger of falling into atoms, as if every known thing had been uprooted. That morning, there was a certainty war was inevitable – in fact, that war had been declared. We wondered in this column at the time "whether the structures of the civilised world had been fatally flawed", whether we were headed for "a new dark age of social and economic chaos".

AND those frightening sentiments were echoed around the world – not without good reason. For by striking such a callous and brutal blow against the heart of the United States, the architects of the attack – a gang of Islamic extremists – had roused an enemy capable of mighty revenge.

The most powerful nation on earth, the most powerful of all time, the United States was moved to righteous fury by the September 11 outrage and it vowed to crush the serpent of terrorism, no matter where it raised its poisonous head, no matter where it sought to hide. In the days immediately after the attack, the hellish prospect of the world in flames seemed close.

But that has not happened. Terrorism is not defeated – far from it – but neither has the determination of decent nations to battle it to extinction been reduced. Those who feared war were right – we have been engaged in a great war for the past five years and the battlefield is truly global. But good men and women go on, believing in the worth of the cause, determined not to be defeated.

In Britain last month, security forces thwarted a vile plan to blow up ten passenger aircraft – but we were not crippled by fear as a result.

While we may lament the need for tighter security arrangements, we have not been frightened out of flying. In Bali, where terrorist bombers deliberately targeted Australians, the local hospitality industry refuses to be cowed into submission. And in Iraq, a democratic government is committed to the construction of a new regime committed to peace and freedom.

And that work is not finished – again, far from it – but no one is shrinking from the task.

Yet this is certain...

THERE is much yet left to achieve. In the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Asia, in Africa and even on our own soil, our terrorist enemies are still active, still planning and plotting against us.

Motivated not by ideology but by a demented hatred of the values we prize – peace, freedom, equality, tolerance – they are the agents evil and they must be opposed for as long as ever it takes to destroy their structures, root and branch. On this day of all days, let us not forget that duty.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/opinion/story/0,22049,20386468-5001031,00.html