Posted on 09/12/2001 7:37:11 AM PDT by Spin
Ten years ago, I sat in a military truck as it rode along Highway 80, "Death Highway" the main thoroughfare into Basra, Iraq. The 8-month standoff-turned-war against Iraq had been brought to and end by the decision of President George Herbert Walker Bush after three days of unleashed US anger against the violent Iraqis who had terrorized their neighbors in the Middle East. What I saw that day was beyond horror. Beyond expression. The carnage and death strewn out along the highway on both sides for miles was incredulous unless I had seen it with my own eyes.
But when I arrived at work Tuesday morning, I along with all of America, from the least to the greatest, experienced the greatest horror to befall America since its beginning over 200 years ago. I'll never forget it. The story, with its incredible pictures of unfolding savagery, has plunged America into a dark time and an uncertain fear about who we are and what we will be after the immense toll has been measured. At my office, we all watched in absolute horror and tears, struggling hard to convince ourselves that this simply could not be true.
As an employee of American Airlines, I see the airport terminal in a way that most folks don't see. At the nation's busiest and largest, Hartsfield International in Atlanta, where I work, the danger of terroristic threats and the likes are an everyday part of business for us. People do make bomb threats and do try to take dangerous things on board aircraft. Those of us who work in this business take our jobs to safeguard air travel with all due seriousness. So naturally, we all could not fathom how someone could get onboard our aircraft with such evil intentions. Yet for all the adverse things I have experienced, the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the deadly assault on the Pentagon in Washington by terrorists on September 11, was by far the worst.
For the rest of the article: http://www.spintimes.com/foster/foster14.shtml
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