balanced and somewhat poignant takes from the Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel editorial board..
Nothing will ever be the same again.
An act of war has been committed against the United States. An especially heinous, deadly, vicious act, the kind rarely committed even in war. An attack not only on the United States, but on human decency itself.
Let the rage and anguish pour forth. Our country needs that now, for only in our shared pain and wrath can we come together as a people to answer this new and terrible challenge, whatever its source.
That we do not know its source must stay our hand for now. But not for long. No, not for long. In the meantime, we must decide as a nation what the appropriate response should be to something so unimaginable, so unjustifiable, so unforgivable.
First and foremost, we must control and channel our anger. We can never overcome the inhumanity that led to Tuesday's despicable acts if we lose our own humanity in the process. So, there must be nothing like what happened during World War II, when thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans were interned in prison camps for no other reason than their ethnicity. No matter what country or renegade group is guilty of these new horrors, Americans must resist the urge to project that guilt onto everyone of similar ethnicity or national origin.
Second, we must be absolutely united, especially in Washington, where our national leaders must react not as party loyalists but as patriots. All political disputes, agendas and rivalries must be put aside for the foreseeable future. Swords drawn by brother against brother must be put down. Leadership now consists of showing Americans the way toward a world they can once again, perhaps someday, come to regard as relatively safe.
Third, the entire U.S. national security apparatus must remain on highest alert indefinitely. All possible steps must be taken to protect Americans from further violence against them, both at home and abroad. For this the United States will need the full cooperation of other countries. The world community must be made to understand that those nations that do not cooperate will either gain America as an enemy or lose America as a friend and ally.
Fourth, we must quickly and clearly identify those responsible for Tuesday's unprovoked attacks, the worst on American soil since Pearl Harbor. This also will require the cooperation of other countries, which similarly must be told that their future relations with the United States are at stake.
If it was renegade terrorists, their entire cell should be put out of commission permanently, whatever it takes. If it was a country, or if any country assisted in it, that country should be regarded as having declared war on the United States, with all that that implies.
Fifth, Congress and the Bush administration must learn from this and seek to make America better prepared in the future. All talk of an expensive missile shield must cease for now. It could never have prevented what happened on Tuesday.
What's needed instead is a full-scale reappraisal of our security needs, the current and future threats facing us, and the ways in which we can become reasonably secure without having to live in a nightmarish police state. Any funds that might have gone toward development of a missile shield should be used to beef up our intelligence apparatus, which needs all the help it can get to combat a menace that is increasingly diffuse, well-equipped and well-organized.
These prescribed steps, however, are only part of it. They are only the start of what we must do to recover from this blow, aimed at the very symbols of American power, prestige and perceived invincibility. While it is essential that we now come together as one nation, united and determined, it is equally important that each of us look inward -- for answers, for wisdom, for the strength to somehow build a better world from these fragments we have shored against our ruins.
How did Americans come to be the object of so much hatred? No political or religious cause could conceivably justify, even in sick minds, the things we have witnessed in the past 24 hours.
What do we tell our children? How do we comfort the more sensitive among us, whose shared anguish is compounded by their own fragility? And how, God help us, can we restore to the victims' survivors something resembling peace of mind, some semblance of belief in human goodness?
Questions hang in the air, like smoke from burning buildings. We cannot answer them today; nor, perhaps, tomorrow or the next day. Perhaps we can never answer them. Yet we will go on. There will be joy again in the land, someday. There will be peace again, someday.
But it will be different. Because nothing will ever be the same again.
[This message has been edited by kosar (edited 09-12-2001).]
Nothing will ever be the same again.
An act of war has been committed against the United States. An especially heinous, deadly, vicious act, the kind rarely committed even in war. An attack not only on the United States, but on human decency itself.
Let the rage and anguish pour forth. Our country needs that now, for only in our shared pain and wrath can we come together as a people to answer this new and terrible challenge, whatever its source.
That we do not know its source must stay our hand for now. But not for long. No, not for long. In the meantime, we must decide as a nation what the appropriate response should be to something so unimaginable, so unjustifiable, so unforgivable.
First and foremost, we must control and channel our anger. We can never overcome the inhumanity that led to Tuesday's despicable acts if we lose our own humanity in the process. So, there must be nothing like what happened during World War II, when thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans were interned in prison camps for no other reason than their ethnicity. No matter what country or renegade group is guilty of these new horrors, Americans must resist the urge to project that guilt onto everyone of similar ethnicity or national origin.
Second, we must be absolutely united, especially in Washington, where our national leaders must react not as party loyalists but as patriots. All political disputes, agendas and rivalries must be put aside for the foreseeable future. Swords drawn by brother against brother must be put down. Leadership now consists of showing Americans the way toward a world they can once again, perhaps someday, come to regard as relatively safe.
Third, the entire U.S. national security apparatus must remain on highest alert indefinitely. All possible steps must be taken to protect Americans from further violence against them, both at home and abroad. For this the United States will need the full cooperation of other countries. The world community must be made to understand that those nations that do not cooperate will either gain America as an enemy or lose America as a friend and ally.
Fourth, we must quickly and clearly identify those responsible for Tuesday's unprovoked attacks, the worst on American soil since Pearl Harbor. This also will require the cooperation of other countries, which similarly must be told that their future relations with the United States are at stake.
If it was renegade terrorists, their entire cell should be put out of commission permanently, whatever it takes. If it was a country, or if any country assisted in it, that country should be regarded as having declared war on the United States, with all that that implies.
Fifth, Congress and the Bush administration must learn from this and seek to make America better prepared in the future. All talk of an expensive missile shield must cease for now. It could never have prevented what happened on Tuesday.
What's needed instead is a full-scale reappraisal of our security needs, the current and future threats facing us, and the ways in which we can become reasonably secure without having to live in a nightmarish police state. Any funds that might have gone toward development of a missile shield should be used to beef up our intelligence apparatus, which needs all the help it can get to combat a menace that is increasingly diffuse, well-equipped and well-organized.
These prescribed steps, however, are only part of it. They are only the start of what we must do to recover from this blow, aimed at the very symbols of American power, prestige and perceived invincibility. While it is essential that we now come together as one nation, united and determined, it is equally important that each of us look inward -- for answers, for wisdom, for the strength to somehow build a better world from these fragments we have shored against our ruins.
How did Americans come to be the object of so much hatred? No political or religious cause could conceivably justify, even in sick minds, the things we have witnessed in the past 24 hours.
What do we tell our children? How do we comfort the more sensitive among us, whose shared anguish is compounded by their own fragility? And how, God help us, can we restore to the victims' survivors something resembling peace of mind, some semblance of belief in human goodness?
Questions hang in the air, like smoke from burning buildings. We cannot answer them today; nor, perhaps, tomorrow or the next day. Perhaps we can never answer them. Yet we will go on. There will be joy again in the land, someday. There will be peace again, someday.
But it will be different. Because nothing will ever be the same again.
[This message has been edited by kosar (edited 09-12-2001).]
