Where do we go from here? There’s still so much we don’t know. The most important thing we don’t know is who is behind the suicidal hijackings that caused so much horror and grief Tuesday.
We do know this was no Tim McVeigh, no Ted Kaczynski. What happened Tuesday could not have been the work of a disaffected loner, but was carried out by a very motivated and coordinated group of people.
There is evidence out there to be assembled. Investigators will look at every ticketed passenger on each of the four doomed flights. When did they buy their tickets? How were the tickets paid for? Credit cards? Whose credit cards? Cash? Who buys an airplane ticket with cash anymore? An attack like this cannot have been carried out without tracks left somewhere.
What we need now is information, something tangible. What happened Tuesday deserves a commensurate response, but unlike Tuesday’s killers, we cannot be random. Their goal was terror, they achieved it. Ours must be justice, and we must strive for justice rather than rage.
What else do we know? A missile shield, no matter how sophisticated, will not protect us from attacks like this. Beefed-up security won’t help either. America will never be conquered in a land war, the country is just too big, its stubborn citizens love their liberty too much. For those same reasons, we can never be entirely secure – the land is too big, the people are stubborn and love their liberty.
The most disheartening scene televised Tuesday was the footage of Palestinians celebrating in the West Bank. Poor, ignorant people, hemmed in by the forces of occupation and bathed in decades of extremist propaganda. Because of those images, mingled with scenes of horror in Manhattan and at the Pentagon, there will be less sympathy in the U.S. the next time a Palestinian falls before a soldier’s rifle, the next time a block of Palestinian houses is razed by bulldozers. Even if it turns out Tuesday’s terror was completely unconnected to mid-East politics, those scenes of Palestinian celebration have already further destabilized world politics. Escalation will now be easier by those who hate on every side.
By many accounts, Tuesday’s attacks were an act of war. They were not a declaration of war, this war was declared years ago, and it’s battles were fought at bombed U.S. embassies in Africa, at Oklahoma City, at U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia and Beirut, in the carefully crafted packages of the Unabomber.
In one light, this is an unusual war, unlike any fought before. Attackers seem to rise from nowhere, kill without mercy and disappear. In the most recent attack, they died with their victims. In another light, this is a pure war. It’s not being fought over a piece of ground, or access to sea lanes or control of resources. This war is about ideas. This war pits extremism against rationality, autocracy against democracy, oppression against liberty.
We must be very careful. We could lose this war without another shot being fired, without another violent incident. If we gain our security but lose our freedom, we lose this war. If we close ranks and join together, we win. If we become intolerant and turn against each other, we lose.
This war will pit our gut reactions against our reasoned deliberations. If we seek justice, not vengeance, we will do honor to the hundreds who died Tuesday. If we fail, we sink to the level of those bastards who crashed the planes and our own immolation will be even more terrible.
Even More Terrible
Where do we go from here? There’s still so much we don’t know. The most important thing we don’t know is who is behind the suicidal hijackings that caused so much horror and grief Tuesday.
We do know this was no Tim McVeigh, no Ted Kaczynski. What happened Tuesday could not have been the work of a disaffected loner, but was carried out by a very motivated and coordinated group of people.
There is evidence out there to be assembled. Investigators will look at every ticketed passenger on each of the four doomed flights. When did they buy their tickets? How were the tickets paid for? Credit cards? Whose credit cards? Cash? Who buys an airplane ticket with cash anymore? An attack like this cannot have been carried out without tracks left somewhere.
What we need now is information, something tangible. What happened Tuesday deserves a commensurate response, but unlike Tuesday’s killers, we cannot be random. Their goal was terror, they achieved it. Ours must be justice, and we must strive for justice rather than rage.
What else do we know? A missile shield, no matter how sophisticated, will not protect us from attacks like this. Beefed-up security won’t help either. America will never be conquered in a land war, the country is just too big, its stubborn citizens love their liberty too much. For those same reasons, we can never be entirely secure – the land is too big, the people are stubborn and love their liberty.
The most disheartening scene televised Tuesday was the footage of Palestinians celebrating in the West Bank. Poor, ignorant people, hemmed in by the forces of occupation and bathed in decades of extremist propaganda. Because of those images, mingled with scenes of horror in Manhattan and at the Pentagon, there will be less sympathy in the U.S. the next time a Palestinian falls before a soldier’s rifle, the next time a block of Palestinian houses is razed by bulldozers. Even if it turns out Tuesday’s terror was completely unconnected to mid-East politics, those scenes of Palestinian celebration have already further destabilized world politics. Escalation will now be easier by those who hate on every side.
By many accounts, Tuesday’s attacks were an act of war. They were not a declaration of war, this war was declared years ago, and it’s battles were fought at bombed U.S. embassies in Africa, at Oklahoma City, at U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia and Beirut, in the carefully crafted packages of the Unabomber.
In one light, this is an unusual war, unlike any fought before. Attackers seem to rise from nowhere, kill without mercy and disappear. In the most recent attack, they died with their victims. In another light, this is a pure war. It’s not being fought over a piece of ground, or access to sea lanes or control of resources. This war is about ideas. This war pits extremism against rationality, autocracy against democracy, oppression against liberty.
We must be very careful. We could lose this war without another shot being fired, without another violent incident. If we gain our security but lose our freedom, we lose this war. If we close ranks and join together, we win. If we become intolerant and turn against each other, we lose.
This war will pit our gut reactions against our reasoned deliberations. If we seek justice, not vengeance, we will do honor to the hundreds who died Tuesday. If we fail, we sink to the level of those bastards who crashed the planes and our own immolation will be even more terrible.