US reopens its eyes as grief of 9/11 recedes

America: Most Americans wanted Zacarias Moussaoui to face the death penalty, according to a poll conducted last month, yet this week's verdict of life imprisonment met with scarcely a whisper of protest.

The families of some who died on 9/11 expressed disappointment and New York politicians, including former mayor Rudy Giuliani, said that execution would have been a more suitable punishment.

Mr Giuliani stressed, however, that he respected the jury's decision and declared that justice had been done. When an interviewer tried to draw him out on the raw emotions the verdict might stir up in New York, Mr Giuliani replied firmly that although the city will always bear the scar of 9/11, it has recovered and moved on.

The US has not, however, forgotten the horrors of September 11th, 2001, and as Moussaoui was sentenced, the country's most successful film was United 93, a dramatic reconstruction of one of the flights that crashed that day. United Airlines flight 93, from Newark to San Francisco, was the only one of four hijacked flights that failed to fly into its intended target, probably the Capitol in Washington. Lebanese hijacker Ziad Jarrah crashed the aircraft into a Pennsylvanian field after a group of passengers attempted to charge the cockpit and seize the controls.

Paul Greengrass's film opens with the four hijackers praying in their hotel room before setting off on their mission. They are earnest, softly spoken young men who pass through the security barrier at Newark airport and join the other 40 passengers waiting for the flight. We catch snatches of conversation among the flight crew and hear passengers making idle, sleepy phone calls, watch them yawn and stretch, read paperbacks or listen to music.

As boarding time approaches, Jarrah looks more anguished and just before he boards, we see him making a phone call. "Ich liebe Dich," he whispers - "I love you." It is a key moment in the film, foreshadowing the parting calls Jarrah's victims will make to loved ones later and boldly humanising the hijacker.

The hijack itself is hesitant and clumsy but shockingly brutal and the hijackers appear uncertain and anxious even as they terrorise the passengers with a fake bomb. The passengers' insurrection is halting and confused at first, with a European passenger opposing any action that might antagonise the hijackers and others unsure of their roles.

By the time they charged the cockpit, the passengers had heard by phone about the aircraft that flew into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and knew what was in store for them. The authorities did not even realise that United 93 had been hijacked until after it crashed, killing everyone on board. Greengrass portrays utter panic and chaos at air traffic and air defence stations as agencies fail to communicate and key figures stand almost paralysed by the enormity of what is happening before them. One woman soldier at the air defence headquarters becomes progressively more inarticulate as each new atrocity flashes on a giant screen and new horrors are reported through her earpiece.

Some critics have complained that the US is not yet ready for a film like United 93 and Universal has been accused of cashing in on the grief of 9/11 victims. Stung by such complaints, the studio gave 10 per cent of the film's first weekend's takings - $1.15 million (€900,000) - to a memorial fund for the passengers and crew of United Airlines flight 93.

The film's success suggests that the US is indeed ready to look again at the events of 9/11 now that the immediate raw pain and anger have subsided. The

dimming of post-9/11 grief may have important political consequences as Americans question some government actions taken in the name of national security.

Most Americans now believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake that did nothing to make the US safer, and has cost more in human and financial terms than the US can afford. As the neoconservative hawks who devised the Iraq war now crank up the case for attacking Iran, they may find today's clear-eyed American public more difficult to persuade.