[CH] Attack on America
Jim Weller (Jim.Weller@salata.com)
13 Sep 01 01:21:12 -0800
It's Thursday night, Sept. 13th and until now I have been too shocked by
and too angry at the recent bad craziness to post a message to anyone. I
think that I am now ready to say something.
The evil that triggered the events of Sept. 11 *must* be stomped out....
irradiated *everywhere*. By all of us. Everywhere. It is war and there
are no rules. Not anymore. These terrorists, their sponsors, their
hosts, their fellow travellers and bedmates should be, must be
exterminated like rats carrying the Bubonic plague, like a rabid dog
found in a school yard.
I am not advocating massacres of innocent and decent Muslim civilians
throughout the Middle East or harassment and persecution of them here at
home. I am directing my anger solely at the terrorists (both those who
perpetrated these vile acts and those who would do the same given the
opportunity and means) and the governments and individuals who harbour,
nurture, train and finance them.
After Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Admiral
Yamamoto, the man who planned and commanded the attack, had misgivings
about what he had done. He had previously lived in the United States for
a time and he had gained an abiding respect for American power and
determination.
He said later, "I'm afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled
it with a terrible resolve".
Well, the sleeping giant has been awakened again.
Once Americans get over their shock they will be angry. Their wrath will
shake the world.
And all civilized countries will be with them. NATO has already invoked
Article 5. For 55 years, America has protected the world. Today it calls
in its chips.
After Pearl Harbor, the United States mobilized its enormous energy and
huge resources in an all-out campaign, a campaign that included the
invention, production and use of a fearsome new weapon, the atomic bomb.
There was little hesitation and no second thought. They did what had to
be done. And now, I expect to see an all-out war on terrorism of equal
proportions.
An attack of this scale on the American homeland is something new in
their experience. There was of course Pearl Harbour and before that,
during the War of 1812, British troops burned down the White House. But
nothing like this. That is why the recent attacks will have a lasting
impact.
We all expect a savage military response of some kind. And we are
prepared to assist in every way.
Unleash the fury.
There will, of course, first be a huge police and intelligence effort to
identify and apprehend the masterminds, wherever they can be caught. Such
an effort succeeded in catching some of the perpetrators of the World
Trade Center bomb attack in 1993.
But we must go further and adopt the Israeli-style policy of killing
terrorist leaders pre-emptively and abroad, even if that means ignoring
or changing that law which forbids U.S. officials from having anything
to do with the assassination of foreign nationals.
There won't be any patience, at home or abroad, for half-measures or
diplomatic niceties.
The problem is to truly identify and track down the real enemy. That
will be hard.
We are all currently unprepared for an all out war on anonymous
terrorism. Like many countries through history, we have been busy
preparing to fight the last war. So now we have to invent a whole
intelligence and military strategy. We don't need a high-tech missile
defence system. Not now.
Since the end of the Cold War which made the United States the only real
superpower, Washington has wielded its big stick with great restraint
and often with deep reluctance. It intervened in the Bosnian war only at
the end. It withdrew from Somalia after a small number of soldiers were
killed in a street battle. It refused to get involved at all in halting
the Rwanda bloodbath. But recent events will force the United States to
be more aggressive, intervening in mad chaotic places that it would
prefer to avoid, in hopes of establishing a worldwide Pax Americana.
The United States must take a page from British history and resort to
gunboat diplomacy, using force to create external order. It may be
forced to take over and run troubled and troublesome countries like
Afghanistan to prevent them from being used as staging grounds for
attacks on the United States.
The trouble with that, of course, is that it would expose the United
States to charges of imperialism. Militant leaders of malignant regimes
would have new fuel for their tirades. Playing global cop makes you a
target. But it *must* be done.
And normally quiet, moderate, little Pacifist Canada the Global
Peacekeeper, among others, will be at your side.
However America reacts to yesterday's horrors, I am confident it will do
so with the same determination and vigour it showed in 1941.
Like FDR said of the Japanese, "What kind of people do they think we
are?"
The world is going to find out once again.
-----------------------------
There will emerge many heroes from this series of events. Some will
become known while others will not. Here three of the first ones:
Thomas Burnett, Jeremy Glick and another as yet unknown passenger aboard
Flight 93, the one that crashed in rural Penn.
There has been a great deal of speculation about Flight 93. It
was the lone hijacked plane that did not hit a U.S. landmark. It
has been reported that investigators believed the hijackers were
trying to crash into Camp David, the presidential retreat in
Maryland, or the Capitol Building.
Two passengers on that fateful flight called their wives via
cellular phone to say that they were planning to stop their
captors' plans. Those calls occurred moments before the plane
plunged into a vacant field in Shanksville, Pa..
Businessman Thomas Burnett, 38, of San Ramon, Calif., called his
wife, Deena, telling her he feared the flight was doomed, his
family said.
He said one passenger had been stabbed to death. "I know we're
all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do
something about it. ... I love you, honey."
Fellow passenger Jeremy Glick told his wife at home in New
Jersey that he and several other people on board had come up
with a plan to resist the terrorists, according to Mr. Glick's
brother-in-law, Douglas Hurwitt.
"They were going to stop whoever it was from doing whatever it
was they'd planned," Mr. Hurwitt told The Washington Post. "He
knew that stopping them was going to end all of their lives. But
that was my brother-in-law. He was a take-charge guy."
Mr. Glick said to his wife that the plane had been taken over by
three Middle Eastern men wearing red headbands. The terrorists,
wielding knives and brandishing a red box they said contained a
bomb, ordered th passengers, pilots and flight attendants toward
the rear of the plane, then took over the cockpit. His wife
conferenced the call to a 911 dispatcher, who told Mr. Glick
about the New York attacks, Mr. Glick's uncle, Tom Crowley,
said.
"Jeremy and the people around them found out about the flights
into the World Trade Center and decided that if their fate was
to die, they should fight," Mr. Crowley said. "At some point,
Jeremy put the phone down and simply went and did what he could
do."
That is the American spirit we saw in 1941-1945; it has not died, it has
just been dormant.
Federal investigators since have found the black box from the hijacked
United Airlines Flight 93. I look forward to hearing about what it
discloses.