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If another attack were to happen like that, there would be no holding back the American people. They would want total destruction of any enemy.

Hard to forget that time. For a few weeks we stopped being Republicans and Democrats, or divided by the usual hyphenated descriptions that divided us. I'm still moved by the clips of congress singing God Bless America on the Capitol steps. I think the terrorists were taught a lesson after 9/11...and not just the one we dished out in Ashcanistan...that when they attack us, they unite us. The enemy that they hoped to splinter was made stronger and more determined. I think Toby Keith summed it up well with the line "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way." They will come at us again...that much is certain. But when they do it won't be with hi-jacked planes. They know that one more 9/11 attack, and even the soccer moms will be screaming for mass deportations and internment camps. If it can be tied to another country, nukes will be a very real option. That ups the stakes for them, meaning that their attack will have to be an order of magnatude higher. I'd be concerned about what happened to the several dozen old soviet era suitcase nukes that went missing a few years ago, or something along those lines.

"Hard to forget that time. For a few weeks we stopped being Republicans and Democrats, or divided by the usual hyphenated descriptions that divided us. I'm still moved by the clips of congress singing God Bless America on the Capitol steps. I think the terrorists were taught a lesson after 9/11...and not just the one we dished out in Ashcanistan...that when they attack us, they unite us. "

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An excellent editorial by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald on Sept 12, 2001:

We'll go forward from this moment. (Original Title, but also referred to with the title "The Steel in Us")

We'll go forward from this moment. It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of
that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock
when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say,
the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author
of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's
attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us?

What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that
you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just
damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our
resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and
quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political
and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes,
capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural
minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a
cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of
trinkets
and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a
certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though --
peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to
do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith,
believers in a just and loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all
of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are
strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN. Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are
in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you
did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special
effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a
Tom Clancy novel.

Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final
death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of
terrorism in the history of the United States and probably, the history of
the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us
bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its
bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone
brought us such abrupt and monumental pain.

When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When
provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any
cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice. I tell you this without
fear
of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know
reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and
accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to
happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will
be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll
go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad.

But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US. You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent.
That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know
us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans
we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise
in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that
maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.

If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message
in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable
of. You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.

http://www.webpagebydesign.com/passthison/the_steel_in_us.php