Holy shit!!

That's all I can say. At least it seems now the chances of World War III are somewhat less than they may have been. But still, it's far worse than the assassination of some archduke. I sincerely hope that people in power in the US act more rationally than they have been doing in recent weeks and can prevent the world from slipping into yet another world war. I never thought it could happen again during my lifetime. Do people ever learn ??

My 9/11 story (written May 2005)

The above was written barely an hour after the missiles had hit. I was working late that evening at a TV station in Perth, and a friend phoned me to let me know what had happened. I thought he was joking, but he put the phone to the TV so I could hear it for myself. I wandered out and informed a newsroom employee who had just locked up for the night - they ran into the newsroom and flicked the coverage to CNN. Within minutes, a swarm of confused employees had descended on the building and were tripping over each other in the absence of any form of management. Even the next morning, no-one knew exactly what was going on and a lot of rumours (eg. the White House had been hit) were everywhere. The media got caught up in editorialising - with very little news but much demand for it, we had four straight days of analysis upon analysis, with occasional doses of propaganda from the usual suspects. After all, the world is black and white, good and evil, and all that.