TWO explosions, thunderclap-jolting—a burst of flames—billowing black smoke—dozens of voices suddenly screaming in pain. Such savagery can appear like spectacle, both in New York in 2001 and Bali 2002.

We seem to be looking at Raden Saleh's painting Forest on Fire in three dimensions, or at a scene from Wagner's Götterdämmerung. Maybe this is why, when the terrorists crashed the two Boeing 767s into the Twin Towers in