Paper cities

I've been listening to a song by Other Lives and pondering 9/11. It seems to me these words capture something of what  think about the event and its aftermath.

paper cities

we sent them all across the ocean
many lives were taken
but i didn't cry, i didn't know them
and i just looked on with no expression

this land was once a home
of friends and family
we used to know
they are all gone now
they are now gone
and for what i cannot tell

put down your banners and flags
this war you've made won't last
your country, just lines on a map
they're drawn up, they don't last

the paper cities burning
the ashes fell like rain
when the fire was over
everything had changed

and people come together
reminds us we're the same

put down banners and flags
this war you've made won't last
your country, just lines on a map
they're' drawn up, but they don't last

I was in Sainsbury's in Dog Kennel Hill when the first plane hit the tower. Shoppers at checkouts looked uncomprehendingly at TV screens with the sound muted. The buzz of conversation was that there'd been a terrible accident in New York. When I got home and turned on the TV, I knew the world had changed: a plane struck the second tower and seemingly minutes later the whole edifice came crashing down.

Ten years on 300,000 innocent lives have been added to the 3000 that died that day; the world is locked in an apparently never-ending war on terror. Yesterday Tony Blair on the BBC recited the mantras of ten years ago as if we have have not lived the horror of the last decade.

Other Lives' Paper Cities seems to capture something of pathos of these last years.