The horrific attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon are almost too mind-blowing to comprehend. It is perhaps more manageable to think simply about the terrible way the people in those doomed aircraft spent the final few minutes of their lives.

Seeing the photos of people looking from the upper storeys of the North Tower at the gaping hole below and knowing they almost certainly did not escape was truly shocking.

We will never know the fear of those terrified souls who threw themselves from the burning building.

And, after our initial horror at the events themselves, comes the fear of the future. Our Prime Minister surely has the future of our nation at the heart of his decision-making.

But can we - do we - really feel able to trust that President Bush will consider us if and when he decides to go to war? Perhaps we feel safe with Tony Blair but he jumped behind President Bush with such haste. Did he know then there were warmongers in the US all too ready to go to war? George W Bush has my very future in the palm of his hands and I can't do a thing about it.

The ripple effects don't just stop there. The world economies are teetering as well.

What, indeed, does the future hold for all of us on this small planet? The evil we have witnessed has been beyond most people's imagination. So we just wait and fear the outcome of the terrorism perpetrated by cruel beasts that live among us.

-Sandy Hooke, St Pancras Green, Kingston, Lewes