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20 years ago, September 11, 2001, the absolute horror.

20 years ago, September 11, 2001, the absolute horror.

Twenty years ago, a new millennium started under dramatic conditions, the impossible had happened, the unthinkable had been realized. The best Hollywood movie writer could not have imagined a scenario of this magnitude.

The drama was a rendezvous with barbarism, a script by barbarian-criminals who dared to declare war on a civilization by killing innocent people, civilians, anonymous people, people like you and me, married or single, mothers, fathers, children, families broken forever.

We had to wait for the impact of the second plane on the second tower to understand that it was an attack and the madness gave way to disbelief. Terrible images, the fire, the panic, the people throwing themselves from the top of the towers, the firemen trapped, the fire, the collapse of the towers, the dust, the people running away in all directions, trying to escape death.

September 11, 2001 marks a turning point in the history of humanity, humans killing other humans with immense pleasure. There have already been, in the past, wars of civilization, of religion, civilians had been killed, even massacred, but they were wars between nations and armies, like the war of the crusades. On September 11, 2001, it was the decision to kill civilians in a city that represents western civilization, the symbol of capitalism, the war of indiscriminate mass attacks had begun.

In fact, this war of killing innocent civilians had started 30 years earlier in Israel with Palestinian terrorist organizations that did not hesitate to kill civilians to defend their cause, but they were often terrorists who killed “Israeli Jews” or took them hostage, they were ready to die but not to commit suicide.

On September 11, 2001, the decision of the terrorists was to die as martyrs, they used civilian planes with civilian passengers as weapons of combat and destruction while giving their lives to kill as many civilians as possible. With Bin Laden and his group of psychologically ill warriors with a hatred of the West, they managed to raise an air force of several planes with a minimum of investment.

The Economic Costs
There is the human tragedy with nearly 3,000 deaths, the 9/11 attack highlighted a recession that had begun in 2001 in the United States. The New York Times estimated that the terrorist group Al Qaeda spent about $500,000 to carry out the 9/11 attack, but that the cost of the damage was $55 billion, including $24 billion in lost revenue from victims, and $8 billion for the World Trade Center buildings. The New York Stock Exchange was closed after the attacks and fell 7.13% on the day it reopened on September 17. The tourism industry was severely affected as people were afraid to travel.

War in Afghanistan
On October 7, 2001, a coalition of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada, among others, attacked Afghanistan, which at the time was controlled by the Taliban regime and provided a safe haven for al-Qaeda, the organization behind the terrorist attacks. The coalition quickly succeeded in ousting the Taliban from power, but became bogged down in an armed struggle with them to hold on to territory. Twenty years after hostilities began, President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops last summer, which led to the Taliban’s swift takeover of Kabul in mid-August, leaving the Taliban to regain power ….

War in Iraq
It is now known that the then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, sought to implicate Iraq and its President Saddam Hussein from the day of the September 11, 2001 attacks. What followed was a relentless campaign by the Bush administration to convince the world of the danger posed by Hussein, culminating in Secretary of State Colin Powell’s now infamous presentation to the UN Security Council on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, all of whose “evidence” was later refuted. On March 20, 2003, the United States, aided by the United Kingdom and Australia (but not France or Canada), invaded Iraq. A Washington Post analysis shows that more than 500,000 Iraqi civilians have died in violence or from war-related causes since the invasion began. At least 4,432 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.

In the opinion of experts, this war has fostered the rise of the Islamic State group, which has gone on to take over parts of the Middle East. Its troops, particularly violent, have perpetrated numerous massacres among their enemies and civilians, especially in Syria, where millions of people have also been condemned to exile.

The most serious thing is that this has given ideas to other terrorist groups to bring down the American enemy and its allies, the terrorists in the world thought, watching the towers collapse, that it was possible, anytime and anywhere. Europe will pay a heavy price on the attacks that will fall on a Europe completely surprised including France with terrible attacks on Paris and Nice.

Madrid, March 11 2004

At least ten bombs are planted by extreme Islamist terrorists and they explode on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004.

Ten bombs planted by radical Islamist terrorists explode on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, during the morning rush hour. Dubbed the “Spanish 9/11,” the attack killed 191 people and injured nearly 2,000.

PHOTO CHRISTOPHE SIMON, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

London bombings of July 7, 2005

Fifty-six people were killed and 700 injured in four explosions on London’s public transport system. 

The first bomb exploded at 8:50 a.m. inside a subway train at Liverpool Street station. Within fifty seconds, two more explosions followed. An hour later, an explosion went off in a double-decker bus. Five days after the attacks, Scotland Yard said it had identified four suspects from surveillance camera footage at King’s Cross Station: four young British men.

Paris, du 7 - 9 January 2015

Seventeen people were killed by three terrorists in a series of attacks led by three French jihadists that began with the killing at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.

Seventeen people were killed by three terrorists in a series of attacks carried out by three French jihadists that began with the killing at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. More than 4 million French people take to the streets in the following days to denounce the attacks.

PHOTO MARTIN BUREAU, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Paris, 13 - 14 November 2015

A series of attacks led by nine terrorists and claimed by the terrorist group Islamic State occurred in Paris and left 131 people dead and more than 400 injured in November 2015.A series of attacks led by nine terrorists and claimed by the terrorist group Islamic State occurred in Paris and left 131 people dead and more than 400 injured. The deadliest of these attacks took place at the Bataclan, where 90 people were killed during a concert.

PHOTO FRANÇOIS GUILLOT, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Nice ,July 14 2016

NICE ATTACK – On July 14, 2016, in Nice, a driver at the wheel of a truck drove into the crowd during the fireworks on the Promenade des Anglais. The terrorist attack killed 86 people.

Hommage aux victimes de l'attentat de Nice le 14 juillet 2016 © AFP - ANDREAS GEBERT

December 2016: Berlin, Christmas

Aboard a truck, a Tunisian man, who pledged allegiance to Daech, plows into a Christmas market on December 19, 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 48. The heavy truck, registered in Poland, mowed down pedestrians present at Breitscheid Square, near the tourist and shopping avenue Kurfürstendamm, shortly after 8 pm. After a European manhunt, Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker whose identity document was found in the truck, was killed on December 23 in Milan, Italy, during a checkpoint. German police are being criticized for delaying the arrest warrant for the number one suspect. 

Berlin (Allemagne), le 19 décembre 2016. Un homme a foncé en camion dans la foule, faisant 12 morts et une centaine de blessés.

London March 22 2017

The Westminster bombing was a double terrorist attack involving a ram car and a knife that took place in the Westminster district of London, United Kingdom, on March 22, 2017, and was claimed by the Islamic State.2 The attack was carried out by two different groups. The first attack took place on Westminster Bridge at around 2:40 p.m., where a car knocked down several passersby, and the second took place a minute later in front of Parliament, where the driver, who got out of his car, fatally stabbed a police officer. The assailant was subsequently shot and killed by British police.

L'attaque s'est déroulée en deux temps: la voiture a foncé sur le trottoir du Westminster Bridge puis l'assaillant a tenté d'entrer dans le Parlement (ici en photo). MaxPPP/Matrix Pictures.co.uk/MATRIX

Barcelona August 17 2017

13 people were killed and about 100 injured in the double bombing in Spain. These pedestrians in Barcelona and Cambrils, two very touristy cities, were hit by speeding vehicles.  

This modus operandi, used by the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda and Daech, has already been used several times in terrorist attacks in Europe. It has even been used by individuals who have not pledged allegiance to them.

La camionnette qui a foncé dans la foule tuant 13 personnes sur la Rambla de Barcelone est remorquée, le 17 août 2017. afp.com/PAU BARRENA
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