The horrendous act of terrorism that we have witnessed in New York City on Tuesday September 11th and the graphic video clips shown worldwide on TV will be forever imprinted on the minds of today's generation. The sheer enormity of the act and the unfolding horror in real time demonstrated the frailty of human life. For all those touched by this monumental disaster, not just US citizens but citizens from around the world, we extend our deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences.
Of course there must be a proper period of mourning and the natural reaction tends to be one of frustration and hence of indiscriminate revenge. However, we earnestly hope that saner thoughts will prevail. To misquote Einstein "We cannot solve the problem at the same level as that in which we allowed it to happen". What is required is a superior strategy, carefully constructed and assiduously asserted - not in terms of blanket forgiveness, but in terms of focused democratic justice.
No amount of post-trauma hand wringing will eradicate our lack of vigilance and determined protection of our particular way of life. Our whole approach to national security and the meaning of national borders, both ours and theirs whoever "they" maybe, must be re-thought. We certainly don't support discrimination and racism.
Having said all of that, one cannot help but wonder at the audacity of the perpetrators and their technical and logistical proficiency. The real lesson of this incident is that someone devised a masterly strategy and recruited a dedicated team. Those who carried out this mission were each individually trained, coordinated, disciplined, exceptionally goal focused and with a willingness for personal self-sacrifice towards that goal.
In our line of business, we call it project management, or rather, program management. In the hands of the wrong people, we have just witnessed an awful demonstration of its power. A very scary thought. First we had the melt-down of the dot.com industry, now we have the literal meltdown of very tangible real assets. This is not a case of natural disaster but a calculated and vicious attack.
After all the pontification is over we must ask ourselves the serious question of what to do? There is no question that we must rebuild, restore and go forward.