For some reason the "Tragedy" column degenerated into irrelevence, not perhaps helped by my altogether too flippant (or overly subtle?) suggestion for Jacko! I am led to believe however that he is a journalist, and therefore unlikely to be thin-skinned.
This is one of the most despicable acts of terrorism since that ugly word entered the lexicon.The human cost of this monstrous crime is incalculable. The long term consequences, once the United States has recovered from the initial shock, hardly bear thinking about. The madmen who initiated this act, presumably in the belief they were doing Allah's work, have plunged an already unstable world into a crisis of frightening proportions.
There is however, a certain irony in the albiet totally justified US outrage, in that the mayhem perpetrated on innocent civilians by the (in part) US-funded IRA has, until now, been relegated to the "not our problem" tray.
I am nevertheless deeply saddened by the event, and my heartfelt prayers go out to all Americans.
[ 15 September 2001: Message edited by: Samuel ]