People from over 60 countries were murdered in the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on this day last year. The figure dramatically confirms the profound international impact of the terrorist atrocities committed on September 11th, 2001.
They have changed the world as well as the United States of America, threatening both the basic security and civil liberties of citizens in many states. That is a measure of how evil and reactionary they were.
It is much too soon to say categorically how relationships between the sole superpower and other states and regions have been affected. There can be no denying that September 11th forced changes that otherwise would have taken much longer to occur and put many new issues on the international agenda. That makes "9/11" arguably as significant as 1914, 1945 or 1989 in the historical calendar of the last 100 years.
The first and primary memory marked today concerns the 3,100 individuals who died and the heroic efforts of those who helped to rescue survivors in New York. The most moving ceremonies involving police and fire fighting personnel are to culminate at Ground Zero in the city, symbolising the solidarity and determination they called forth. It has a universal aspect, with which people throughout the world have readily identified.
No one should underestimate the impact on ordinary Americans, which has been validly compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. More people were killed in this single attack than in any other on US soil since the American Civil War. It decisively broke the continuing record of physical invincibility which has so marked US history since then.
It has created a political determination simply and eloquently expressed by President Bush to restore his country's invulnerability by using and reinforcing its awesome military power against these new assailants. That those responsible are not obviously attached to traditional territorial states but exist in loose networks throughout the developed and developing worlds gives them a completely new character.
The major question thrown up by the rapidity and depth of events since then is whether the spontaneous identification between the victims of the attacks and peoples and states throughout the world can survive the means chosen by the US government to respond to them.
The huge increase in military and security expenditures and preparedness inaugurated by President Bush and the determined assault on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan accused of harbouring the al-Qaeda organisation which claimed responsibility for the attacks have been followed by a much more ambitious and controversial affirmation of unilateral US power against a new set of enemies.
Iraq has become its primary focus, although that state's responsibility for the September 11th attacks remains unproven. President Bush's administration has yet to convince its own people and its friends and allies throughout the world that a military attack on Iraq is a valid way to avenge this horrendous crime.