An act of global war takes only seconds to change the world.

Hello everyone

The world changed rather drastically on Tuesday 11th September with the terrorist attack on the twin Trade Centre Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

We've seen the results of bomb blasts a lot in the UK committed by the IRA to known the devastation they cause. For the most part, those deaths and casualties have been amongst our own population's civilians and military.

We're very much aware of such actions than many parts of the western world. For many Americans, such actions didn't even hit their own news broadcasts. To have something happen like it on such a scale on their own doorstep is a cold and frightening reminder that no country is immune to terrorist action, no matter who starts it.

The action in America not only devastated a large piece of Manhattan but took the lives of nationals from across the world irrespective of race, colour or religion. It was designed to be an outrage and an opening in a war of outright hostility.

Retaliation isn't only expected but probably already been considered by the terrorists who are playing a complex game of human chess out to devastate the infidel West. The world has changed once again. We live in an uncertain future.

In Science Fiction, we see nothing untoward in the elimination of entire populated planets in the course of a story. It's done in a matter of a few words on a page. The dead are seen as just a statistical number rather than people we know personally. It is very hard of put faces to numbers.

There is little in the way of emotional baggage to hand to the reader. I doubt if such a picture will be considered again without further thought. The difference with the American terrorist attack is with cameras.

The population of the world not only heard the news reports, they saw it as it happened live. In the aftermath, we have seen relatives in despair of never seeing their loved ones again. These numbers have faces. It won't be something easily forgotten.

Nor should it. Several witnesses who were there compared the fall of the towers to a disaster movie unfolding before them. Considering the number of films where buildings are trashed, this comparison isn't unreasonable.

The only difference is that that was fantasy and this is for real. The distinction will make any sane human think twice as to how the display of such hostility will be portrayed in future films. This isn't an avocation to remove such acts from films.

Seeing them is a reminder of what can happen and why we should all be wary of it happening again. If anything good comes out it, then it would be the directors and writers will be prone to remind everyone of the consequences than to glorify such action for either side.

It will always be a stark reminder that death should never be treated lightly in any format. From a different perspective, we appear to be at the verge of a war of global proportions.

No one has accused it of being a third world war yet simply because no one has totally drawn up the battlelines at the time of writing this. [A week is a long time before the release of this editorial.] Again, I find my writer's objective perspective kicking in again. Most writers tend to see a third world war as one of nuclear devastation where there are no real winners.

Doubt if any considered a war where there is no firm line of attack. No single nation to be subdued. It is a war where the terrorist soldiers of the aggressors are covertly planning to attack from within the nations themselves in a whole new definition to fifth columnists.

It is the one kind of war where naked aggression is the one thing most likely to backfire. Capturing or killing the leadership won't prevent any sleeper cells moving into action and doing what they've been ordered to do.

Worse, they have no fear of taking their own lives in the consequence of their actions meaning anything is possible. There is no standard answer based on previous war strategies. It is a frightening look into the unknown for which there is no standard answers or templates to compare it to.

The world has changed once again. No one is ever going to be the same again. This is a rather sober and albeit shorter editorial than usual. Saying that, I've probably packed in more heavy thoughts to consider than usual.

We can't do much for the dead other than mourn their passing. It is important to live for a future where such a tragedy will never happen again.

Thank you and good night.

Geoff Willmetts
editor and pragmatist

SFCrowsnest e-mail: gfwillmetts@REMOVE.FOR.SPAMhotmail.com
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