I'm quite sure that my thought was a general one and every man on the Earth asked himself the same questions. And indeed, on that day World War Three started, but a war different from what we know. This is a silent war, in which you fight against an invisible enemy, almost undetectable, who is hiding very well. That day The World War Three started, a war against terrorism and tyranny.
Anyway, something final happened on the clear sky of the Occident. Something important and, maybe, not very clear, but perceived by the global community as a fact meant to mark an irrevocable moment, the start of an epoch-making change. For all of us, the image of the two Boeings crashing the Twin Towers was enough to understand that the Apocalypse, as it was imagined, could finally erupt on the face of the Earth.
But, beyond this tragedy and the horror of loosing thousands of lives, there is hiding something else: the final combat, "dies irae", The Judgement Day, between two global systems which, for a long time only watched each other from distance till they came to this final and direct confrontation. This is not about the Christian world on one side and the Islamic world on the other side, here is about the World of richness, individualism, progress, and efficiency on a side and The World of poverty, misery and blind faith on the other side. These two different worlds had to meet, finally to confront themselves and destroy each other as sandcastles. It is important to see that they are based on different conceptions concerning life: in the previous century it seemed that the western world broke any connections with the spirit and its purposes were only material . In the so-called "the third world", the man is still in contact with his spiritual roots and traditions, and in the confrontation with the Occident, it seems that this world is losing itself in the tornado of despair .
Now, let's start describing how everything took place .
Premises: A week before September 11th 2001, Egyptian information services sends a message saying to CIA that Bin Laden might have planned a terrorist attack on American territory. This message was not considered very important by the American authorities .
7:58 a.m. - United Airlines Flight 175 leaves Boston for Los Angeles carrying 56 passengers, two pilots and 7 flight attendants .
7:59 a.m. - American Airlines Flight 11 departs from Boston for Los Angeles, carrying 81 passengers, 2 pilots and 9 flight attendants. This Boeing 767 is also hijacked and diverted to New York .
8:01 a.m. - United Airlines Flight 93,a Boeing 757 carrying 38 passengers, 2 pilots and 5 flight attendants, leaves Newmark, New Jersey for San Francisco .
8:10 a.m. - American Airlines Flight 77 departs Washington's Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, carrying 58 passengers, 2 pilots and 4 flight attendants. The Boeing 757 is hijacked after take off .
New York - time: 8:46 a.m.- hell is unleashed. The second hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 11,with all the peoples on board, crashes violently into the north tower of World Trade Center. The eyewitnesses have a great shock and despair becomes general. People caught at the superior floors understand that these are the last moments of their life. The help asked in despair doesn't come: white clothes are waved, screams are heard, objects thrown - but vainly, for them there is nothing to be done. Really desperate, some of them throw themselves out of the window, the impact being fatal. These people accepted their fate and decided to finish faster with this torture. Others died waiting for something . something that was only an illusion . the illusion of a second chance. But God takes care of His people and some of them, managed to find some stairs that were not badly damaged by the impact. We can say, without any doubt that these people were born for the second time .
The nightmare images seemed not to have happened in reality, but in a movie very well directed.
And this is just the beginning because after a few minutes the second hijacked plane reached its target: the south tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., at only 17 minutes from the first attack, the first hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175 with all the people on board, crashes into the south tower of World Trade Center, in front of the terrified eye-witnesses and TV cameras. In the first place, people thought that this was the tank water plane meant to stop the fire in the building. But it didn't resemble at all a tank water plane, rather a big flying grave. Now, the Twin Towers became two huge torches covering a great part of New York's sky with their infernal smoke. The TV cameras and civilians took pictures of a "landscape" that they surely wouldn't see again.
U.S Federal Aviation Administration shut down all New York area airports. At 9:21,all bridges and tunnels leading into New York are closed.
At 9:43 a.m., at 40 minutes from the second attack and an hour later from the first, the last hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77 with people on board, crashes over a section of the Pentagon.
The White House is on alert. At 10:05 - the new president, George W. Bush with the entire White House staff are immediately evacuated and put in the presidential airplane, Air Force One, where he is safer than staying on ground. All flights, commercial, tourist, passenger, are cancelled and the US's sky is supervised by airplanes with the order of knocking down any kind of flying object. Everything takes place as a chain reaction, but this chain has unimaginable consequences that will change the course of history.
At 10:05,at only one hour from the attack, the south tower falls with big noise. The south tower is the last crashed and the first falling down. After five minutes, at 10:10,the third hijacked airplane, United Airlines Flight 93,crashes in a wooded area in Pennsylvania, Somerset Country, the only victims being the passengers and the hijackers. It seems that the passengers fought and preferred to sacrifice their life instead of fulfilling the diabolical plan. The destination of this plane is unknown. Hundreds of firemen, police officers and military units are brought to pull out the survivors from the demolished south tower and from the north tower that hasn't collapsed yet.
Half-hour later after the attack, all the Wall Street stock exchange is in shock. The American $ is loosing important percentages, its value being 30% smaller. The world economy is very close to an abyss . .
President George W. Bush called these events "acts of war" and he transmitted to the Army and secret services to "find those responsible and bring them to justice". He asked the US Congress to vote 20 billion $ for reconstruction, reorganization and the affected by the tragedy.
At short time after the south tower crashed, at 10:28 the north tower crashed too. The falling of these giants was symbolic for the falling of America and not only . these giants seemed invincible and untouchable but they were crushed like some flies.
