The post 9/11 world of today.

 I can recall quite graphical the day of 9/11. I was seeing patients in the consulting room in north London on a - crisp clear sunny Tuesday - the weather was very similar to that of New York. I was seeing a member of the government and completely unprecedentedly - we watched the unfolding events of what was happening in New York - in my sitting room. Suddenly there was a message from the Cabinet Secretary Richard Wilson, to urgently - return to a Downing Street, for a COBRA meeting. These events led to the war - on terrorism as it was now called - and the consequence wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that lasted until president Jo Biden, decided foolishly to - scramble out on 30 August 2021. The extortionate cost to the American economy was estimated to be between $5 & 6 trillion for these combined wars. That is only one side of the coin - what about the lives destroyed and mutilated by the senseless war on terrorism - President W Bush declared prematurely on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on 1 May 2003 “ mission accomplished”. How far from reality was that? 

We in this country had the Iraq Report, commissioned by Gordon Brown the prime minister - into the serious fiasco and so call ‘Dodgy Dossier’? Chaired by Sir John Chilcot in July 2009. His Chilcot - report was published in 2016. Unfortunately we are still living in the aftermath of 9/11. The present war against Iran led by president Trump - is part of this general malaise regarding international law. Might is more important than - what is right and lawful. Moreover the war in Gaza and general disregard for the norms and values that underpin international - rules based order - have been prematurely jettisoned. In addition we have the war in Ukraine and the loss of - blood and iron. Where will it all end? We now live in a far more unpredictable world where the two remaining - super powers the US and China - keep a watchful eye on each other. And coming in down the tracks very fast is the - apocalypse of the AI revolution.