Here are a few items that I found on the web or were sent to me in chain E-mail related to the World Trade Center and the ghastly events of 9/11/2001. Let us never forget what happened that day.

Columns of light recall the locations of the former World Trade Center towers #1 and #2 on the 6-month anniversary of the terrorist attack. This has come to be known as the World Trade Center Tribute In Light, and it has been repeated on several anniversary dates since the attack.

A crew hung a huge American flag at the Pentagon shortly after the terrorist attack.

Workers sorting through the rubble with the American flag hanging in the background. Ironically, the flag was stolen from a private yacht that was anchored in the Hudson river on the other side of the World Financial Center (which is next door to the World Trade Center complex).

The World Financial Center is just across the street from the World Trade Center complex, sitting between WTC buildings and the Hudson River. The building on the right, 2 WFC, is the Merrill Lynch HQ, while the left tower, 3 WFC, is the world HQ of American Express. These buildings were evacuated in time, and no one was injured in the process. The buildings were rapidly repaired and reoccupied. 1 WFC, which is off the photo to the right, the HQ for Oppenheimer and Dow Jones, was largely undamaged. 4 WFC, also a Merrill Lynch building, sits exactly behind the AM/EX building in this photo. The glass commons area between 2 WFC and 3 WFC, called the Winter Garden, was a total loss. After two years of reconstruction, it is nearly finished and retail stores are starting to return to the complex.

This is the 7 World Trade Center building. It collapsed late in the afternoon on September 11, 2001. This building was not hit by aircraft, nor was it significantly damaged in the collapse of the main World Trade Center towers. Its collapse remains a mystery to this day, and it is the only steel frame building to collapse strictly due to fire. The building was evacuated that morning, and firefighters made the decision to let it burn and focus their efforts on recovery of victims from the collapse of the twin towers. Seven World Trade Center was somewhat unique in that it was built above a Con Edison power substation, so it had a complex series of braces in place of support pillars in the power substation area. It is believed that this bracing was only marginally sufficient to support the building, and these braces bent due to heat of the fire, leading to failure of the building as a whole.

The former Deutsche Bank building, located on the south side of the World Trade Center complex, took a direct hit when the south tower collapsed. A large gash was opened in the glass curtain wall of the building, exposing it to the elements. The sprinklers also went off. As the building sat, it became contaminated with mold. Even after the mold was removed, it was decided that the building was not worth saving, and in June of 2003, it was decided that it would be taken down. In this photo, the Deutsche Bank building is covered with black netting supporting a huge American flag.

Tragedy continues to haunt this building. In August of 2007, a fire broke out as the building was being prepared for dismantling. Two firefighters became stranded in the building, and died when their airpacks ran out of air. Several days later, part of the scaffolding collapsed, injuring more firefighters.

Temporary memorial marks the location of the crash of Flight 93 near Shanksville, PA. We have had a lot of patriotic slogans over the years, such as "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Pearl Harbor". I doubt anyone said it more powerfully than the passenger who said "Let's Roll". Many people consider this the first victory in the war on terror. The actual crash site is located about 1000 feet to the southeast of this marker, and it is off limits to all but the families of the passengers.

One proposal for rebuilding the World Trade Center complex.

So, what part of B-52 Stratofortress and carpet bombing do the Taliban not understand?

Baghdad during the shock and awe bombing. Payback is a bitch, Saddam. Never mind that Saddam had nothing to do with the events of September 11, 2001, but don't let that fact confuse President Bush. As a result, Iraq was also a tragedy of 9/11.

Here is the man himself, Osama Bin Laden, the most hated human since Adolph Hitler, resurfacing after spending two years hiding in caves in Pakistan. One has to wonder why so much of the terrorism in the world comes out of the middle east. Is there something wrong with that part of the world, or is there something fundamentally wrong with Islam?

Update — On Sunday, May 1, 2011, US Navy SEAL Team 6 put a bullet through Osama Bin Laden's head and dumped his body into the sea, ending his ten year flight from justice. Yes, payback really is a bitch. This is yet one more death in a long string of deaths, showing once again that the only real outcome of terrorism is death, destruction, and misery.