The Anniversary - And Have We Learnt Anything?

Of the rash of articles about this year's anniversary of the Day The World Changed, the most emotional and perceptive, not entirely surprisingly, comes from Robert Fisk of the Independent. Considering Pastor Terry Jones, he says:

Just look at all the other crackpots spawned in the aftermath of those international crimes against humanity: the half-crazed Ahmadinejad, the smarmy post-nuclear Gaddafi, Blair with his crazed right eye and George W Bush with his black prisons and torture and lunatic "war on terror". And that wretched man who lived – or lives still – in an Afghan cave and the hundreds of al-Qa'idas whom he created, and the one-eyed mullah – not to mention all the lunatic cops and intelligence agencies and CIA thugs who failed us all – utterly – on 9/11 because they were too idle or too stupid to identify 19 men who were going to attack the United States. And remember one thing: even if the Rev Terry Jones sticks with his decision to back down, another of our cranks will be ready to take his place.

Another that challenges the more conventional and saccharine approach is over at the online First Post, where Alexander Cockburn places the inevitable Jones in a different context as he rails against the hypocrisy of those who condemn him - who, he not unreasonably asks, is causing more damage to muslims in Afghanistan for example? The would-be book burning pastor, or the general who orders regular Predator onslaughts that decimate civilian groups in remote tribal areas?