Today the world changed irrevokably.

More than Pearl Harbour, more than Hiroshima or Nagasaki or Dresden or Hamburg or Beirut, todays unconscionable atrocity will live in the annals of infamy for as long as our civilisation survives.

As a PR exercise for terrorists everywhere it was without equal. The images that were seared on the retinas of every viewer will have encouraged every tinpot retard with a "cause" to consider how he (or she) can make a similar impact. How can they ever be denied "the oxygen of publicity" when deeds such as these are perpetrated?

Any retaliation will only act as a catalyst to further terrorism, our world is too fragmented, and too many hold real or imagined grievances; too many believe that their cause is just and "God is on my side".

I was close to both the Baltic Exchange and Bishopsgate bombs in London. I know how scared and confused I was, and those were mere cap bombs by comparison to this.

I have worked in the City of London all my adult life, and I have friends and colleagues who work in New York's financial district. I have stood on the top of the WTC, and a painting of the Manhattan skyline hangs in my hallway.

This is beyond belief, and my heartfelt thoughts are with every victim, and every victim's family and friends.

May the final outcome be less dreadful than we all fear.

I can't see how it can be, though.