[95th Rifleman]

I was born back in 1980 (July), my Father was in the RAF and made sergeant before he did his time. I grew up with terrorism, constant attacks and violence to a point where British servicemen where not allowed to wear uniform in civvy street!

When you live with the reality of terror, from birth, you tend to develop a thick skin. One of the reasons the 7/7 attacks in london don't have anything near as much of a resonance in our culture as 9/11.

Now I know somebody is going to come up with a cheap line like "But we lost 3000 people, you didn't lose that many!". Numbers are essentialy meaningless over time. America was hit once and went crazy, the UK was hit, on a constant basis for over FIVE decades and the violence in NI is still ongoing.

I was watching some of the 9/11 stuff on TV. I warn you know,the following is controversial so if your easily offended don't read.

9/11 took out over 3000 people, conservative reports estimate that double that many civilians have died in Afghanistan. I felt that there was a blatant need for blood after 9/11, which was most likely the desired goal of the attacks in the first place.

10 years on, what has beeen achieved? I think bin laden died laughing because he won this war. Public opinion in other nations regarding America is at an all-time low, America has been dragged into a ten year conflict that has cost the lives of over 1600 US troops and 380 British.

This is the legacy of 9/11.