It’s been seven years since the world’s largest terror attack. Thousands of people died within minutes, in one surrealistic September morning. And then the world changed forever.

What would the world be like if there was no 9/11? Would America still go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq? Would George W. Bush still be elected for a second term? Would the Georgian conflict and the possible emergence of a second Cold War still be happening?

We don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. This is the world we live in, and we have to do our best with what we’ve got. More than 3000 people did die 7 years ago, and this wasn’t a Hollywood special effects scene. Personally, I still cannot comprehend the full meaning of that morning in New York. The mind cannot deal with such surrealism, so we try to repress what happened — and once a year, the unreal penetrates through our defense shield and we remind ourselves that life is ultimately uncertain.