4 years ago today, terror struck New York City, right in the heart of Manhattan. Still remember, I was studying for the English prelim paper I was sitting the next day when I saw the news on Channel News Asia. Never had I seen such great destruction done by the terrorists. In fact, terrorists were so ‘unknown’ until disaster struck. Who is Osama Bin Laden? What the heck is Al Qaeda? Few knew what n who it was before September 11 2001. Most thought Afghanistan is just another country that’s undeveloped n full of hot desert. What’s the capital of Afghanistan? Bet less than half in 10 can give u the answer before 911. It’s Kabul by the way. Worse still, some don’t even have any clue where this country is located on the world map.

The events that took place that fateful day made everyone in the world wake up. We were all filled with shock n disbelief. Who could have the power to create such great destruction to the almighty United States of America? 2 passenger planes fully filled with hundreds of innocent lives each crashed into the World Trade Centre Towers. Another crashed into the Pentagon while the last one crashed into a forested area in Pennsylvania. 4 planes were apparently hijacked by members of the Al Qaeda group n were flown to their targets. Can u imagine how those people on board these planes feel? Fear, total despair, helpless, just to say the least. No one stood a chance in those planes for the hijackers were prepared to sacrifice their lives too.

The greatest destruction must have been in Manhattan City. The impact from the plane crash created huge burning ‘holes’ on each of the tower. When the 1^st plane crashed into one of the towers, some thought it was an accident. But when the 2^nd one came n did the same act, we all knew it’s not as simple as 1^st thought. USA was suddenly in a state of emergency. People panicked. The whole Manhattan City was evacuated in the shortest time possible. The sight of planes flying in the air made people feel unease. Firemen were deployed immediately to save the workers still stuck in the WTC.

Sadly, time ran out for some of the people inside WTC. Both towers collapsed, killing thousands of innocent lives, including those firemen who went in w/o second thought to save more people. Tonnes of steel crumbled into a gigantic pile of ash n debris in a matter of seconds. The burning jet fuel was to hot for the towers to keep standing after a proud 29 years of dominating the New York City skyline. The WTC is gone forever. Paper documents were still flying in the air when both the towers were destroyed n grounded. Guess those documents were the last thing we could see that’s linked with the casualties.

Families were broken overnight. Children were orphaned n parents lost their precious sons n daughters. Everyone living in the USA was distraught. Never will they expect such a thing could happen to America.

It’s a sad day to be in the USA. 4 years on, the war in Afghan is still ongoing. The search for Osama Bin Laden bears little fruit. The people of the USA never found a closure. We will all remember what happened on September 11 2001. It’s too cruel, too shocking to be forgotten.