Terror has returned to New York, shattering the overwhelming impression that America ~ alone among the Big Powers ~ has, since 11 September 2001, been spared the bedlam and butchery that have convulsed other parts of the world, including Europe.

Sixteen years later, the coincidence must be deeply intriguing as the city ofop New York emerges as the thread that links 9/11 to 11/1. Furthermore, this is the first time that ISIS is suspected to have targeted America for the assailant, Sayfullo Saipov, is believed to be a sympathiser of the Caliphate. Comparisons can be odious; in terms of casualties and the extent of devastation there can be no parallel beyond the place of occurrence ~ in the vicinity of the World Trade Center.

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A legal immigrant from Uzbekistan, perhaps radicalised while in the US, has mowed down and killed eight people and injured 11 in bustling Manhattan. Predictably, President Trump has called for further immigration restrictions, and has even hinted that the assailant could be sent to the horrifying prison in Guantanamo Bay, which would be “preferable to the joke of America’s criminal justice system”.

He must be secretly thankful to Barack Obama that despite his pledge, he wasn’t able to close this institutionalised travesty of human rights. Trump has been suitably robust in his immediate response to the latest outrage; yet there is no mistaking the jarring note.

Notably, the President has betrayed varying degrees of concern. “It’s too soon to talk about gun control,” was his breathless reaction to the slaughter in Las Vegas, where a white man killed 59 people and injured 500 some months ago with sophisticated weapons.

As the White House appears to be floundering in its essay towards a definition of terror, the administration ought to be acutely aware that terror knows no religion or the colour of the skin or the perpetrator’s country of origin. Still less does it lend scope for a presidential reaction that is way beyond hypocrisy.

Gun-control was virtually ruled out in the context of Las Vegas. In the aftermath of the mayhem in New York, however, the White House is chewing over incarceration at Guantanamo. The contrast is as stark as it is contrived.

A note found inside the pick-up truck has been the critical giveaway, with a specific reference to the Islamic State. Whether or not the outrage was an extreme form of mental aberration need not detain us here.

Suffice it to register that Saipov has targeted innocents… in an echo of the strategy that ISIS has recommended to its followers. The victims include five Argentinans and a Belgian, with two yet to be identified.

The nationalities testify to the melting-pot and magnet for visitors that is New York. Sadly, the country is helmed by a President whose very election a year ago is now suspect.

New York showcases the tragedy of America.