The state is in danger of falling into disrepute due to the evidence of its inadequate resources.

Instead of the international police action we had hoped for during the war in Kosovo, there are wars again - conducted with state-of-the-art technology, but still in the old style

One never really knows who one's enemy is.

Perhaps at a later point important developments will be traced back to September 11. But for now we do not know which of the many scenarios will actually hold in the future.

What was new was the symbolic force of the targets struck. The attackers did not just physically cause the highest buildings in Manhattan to collapse; they also destroyed an icon in the household imagery of the American nation.

The misery in war-torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the Thirty Years' War.

Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades.