Posted on 08/25/2002 4:40:35 PM PDT by Pharmer
A Growing Angst
Almost a year ago I was driving to work when at 9:00 AM I heard that a plane collided into the World Trade Center in New York. I was driving into the Princeton, New Jersey area on Route 1 as I listened to Howard Stern announce the news, interrupting himself and his irrelevant comments on Pamela Anderson’s… something. Tuning to 770 AM WABC, I heard the reporter talking about the fire in Tower 1. He then got an eyewitness to the event on an adjacent building on the phone to describe the fire when the witness screamed in horror as the second tower exploded. He obviously didn’t see the second plane but the reporter did. I called my wife on the cell phone to get her to turn on the TV to tell me what was going on. But she was out getting her hair cut at a salon with no TV. She said I was full of shit and that no one would be that crazy and hung up!
10 minutes later, I got to work near Princeton; I found most of the site personnel huddled in the auditorium watching the events on MSNBC projected on the big screen. We watched in horror repeated replays of the second plane hitting Tower 2, visually redescribing what I heard on the radio. I stood next to one of our department secretaries who was very upset. Her husband worked in Tower 2 on the 97th floor. She tried to get in touch with him but to no avail.
We then witnessed the loud crashing and the smoke cloud. My first thought was that another bomb had gone off. I almost collapsed in horror thinking of those in the streets. But I found myself quickly comforting our secretary who collapsed as she heard that Tower 2 had imploded. She never saw her husband again.
I went outside the building I could see the smoke from New York as well as planes lining up to land and Newark (NJ) airport just north of us.
Our company then sent us home. On the way home I heard of the horrors at the Pentagon and on the field outside Pittsburgh.
I will never forget this day. It was less than a year ago. But it seems like a lifetime. And yet I still have not gotten over it. I may never.
Since then I have seen the President whom I voted for grow in stature. I have always seen him this way, but I have been glad that many others who thought otherwise, feel also. He has said that he will not forget this wound on our nation. I hold him to it.
We have brought the Taliban down… cool.
John Walker Lindh is facing 20 years…also cool.
But does this avenge 3000 American dead in one day on our own soil, not to mention the destruction of one of our greatest constructions? This isn’t just about the dead but of our nation’s capital. It may be just steel and stone but it is also the efforts of thousands who toiled for years to build a great edifice, a symbol of what we are. Many who built the World Trade Center are still alive. Think about it; what if someone blew up Apollo 11 on the pad. Or destroyed Independence Hall or the Washington Monument at night when nobody was there? Or defaced Mount Rushmore? And in the name of a Palestinian state half a world away?!! Would the French tolerate the destruction of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower and just mourn the dead who were there when it happened? This is what wars are fought over! Modern civilization still grieves the loss of the Parthenon that was destroyed by the Turks over 500 hundred years ago.
I hope there are many like me.
Afghanistan was a police action, literally. It may have weakened Al Qaeda and brought down the puppet regime that harbored them but there is still terrorism abroad. More than ever. Yasser Arafat, the original modern time terrorist, is still running amok killing Israelis in the fashion that we swore we would not tolerate on our own people. Mr. Sharon should him hoist on a petard in the middle of Tel Aviv after what his nation has endured of late. Mr. Bush consorts with the House of Saud, the ones who probably paid for the World Trade Center attack (although not directly…with deniability…uh huh…yeh!). And yet there is a gapping hole in Manhattan that is a festering wound in this nation. It may have been cleaned, but it needs to be healed…and avenged.
Often in the grieving process, when grief subsides, anger follows. I have a growing angst that needs to be fed.
The grief is fading. This was an act of war more horrific than Pearl Harbor. When we relive the moment we are awestruck at the enormity of the cowardice displayed by the attackers. But, the sleeping giant still does not want to get out of bed. There is no war waging. We find ourselves more concerned with corporate scandals and 401k values than the effects of 9/11.
The news media quotes allies abroad and conservative pundits at home saying that attacking the enemy will not end the terror:
“Sadam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11”.
Right. And the moon is made of green cheese. Has he denied it? I recall Osama Bin Laden denied it right after it happened. If we are to put an end to terrorism (the stated objective of the war) should we take out the biggest sponsor of terrorism? Next excuse, please.
“It will destabilize the region and cause ‘Armageddon’ in the Middle East. ”
Huh? Destabilize? Israel is ablaze with suicide bombers. Sadam Hussein is shooting at planes in the No Fly Zone. And boy the Egyptian and Saudi press is real conciliatory isn’t it? I think if we go in with enough noise and bang some heads that order will be restored. If thugs are running amok in your neighborhood don’t you call the cops or are you afraid that will make them really mad!!!
“It will trigger more terrorism at home, maybe even worse than 9/11.”
That will happen if we do nothing. In fact I believe that 9/11 happen because we have dealt with the problems with half measures and appeasement. Lobbing a cruise missile here and there and dealing with Yasser Arafat has been real helpful hasn’t it!
“We will be the aggressor nation in an UNPROVOLKED attack.”
What !!!!!!!! This one makes me want to strangle someone.
“Bush needs to declare war.”
Read Rush Limbaugh’s column in the Wall Street Journal this past week. He is exactly right. We are already at war. Congress declared it on Sept. 14, 2001 whether they realize it or not.
I am not longing for blood to be spilled. But if we are to live in peace we must be prepared to fight for it. Inaction and appeasement can be as deleterious as capitulation. We did not ask for this war. But I do not think our spirit as a nation will be restored until one or all of the nations that sponsored these cowards pays’ the price.
I have a 15 year old daughter and 10 year old son. I want them to live in a safer world. I do not want them to fight tomorrow because we lost heart today. I want them to know that they are free because of our courage, not because of our wealth. We are being bullied by a bunch of piss-ant cowards. Unless we make them pay for their cowardly acts they will continue.
Mr. Bush, tell Brent Scrowcroft and the EU to take a hike! As you said last September; “Your either with us or against us!” Screw Al Gore and the New York Times! Your inaction is just as politically risky as any action you take. In short…Lets Roll!!
Since 8/17/02 there seems to be a change in the air that is like a kick in the groin.
Chris Matthews had an interesting piece today. I rarely agree with him but he did mention that support for an Iraqi attack is wanning in the polls. And sadly he is right. The problem is that Bush 2 is sadled with a reality of of implementing a New World Order, but not one exactly envisioned by his father, Brent Scowcroft, or the latest voice of dissent from the right and the former Bush 1 administration, James Baker III.
I fail to understand why these folks are airing their dissents in public, and on the New York Times editorial page.
Could it be that Clintoon isn't the only one worried about his legacy? Maybe Bush 1 and Babs are feeling a little uneasy about their cozyness with the house of Saud. Maybe Baker And Scowcroft are doing a little CYA in the same vein as Madeline Notsobright earlier this year.
The president should not be intimidated by his father's cronies. Even if Dad picks up the phone to W to get him to listen to these has-beens, he should reply, "Dad, I love you, but your not responsible for the safety of of the American people, I am!, Mr. Rumsfeld, Lets Roll"
A homocidal madman has access to the full resources of a sovereign state, which he has committed to building a vast war machine, while his people starve to death. He's shown that he'll overrun and subjugate peaceful neighbors, if he calculates that he can get away with it. Huge numbers of his own people can die as a result, and it doesn't seem to cause him the slightest remorse or temper his ambitions. Defectors from his regime detail his determined efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and the progress he's made so far. He's demonstrated his willingness to kill large numbers of his own people with NBC weapons.
It astonishes me that we sit around waiting for him to complete his weapons development programs, while politicians babble about the Treaty of Westphalia. Have we forgotten all about Neville Chamberlain, and the madman who lulled him into signing away the Sudentenland?
It certainly was one of those defining moments, most people remember where they were when they heard that an airliner had flown into the WTC. In my youth, the defining moment was news of JFK's assassination in Dallas; for my parents ... Pearl Harbor.
On 9-11 I was driving my wife to work, as she had a flight out to the west coast that afternoon for a meeting in San Francisco. The radio station we were listening to broke into regular progamming to announce that an aircraft had flown into one of the WTC towers. I dropped my wife off and shortly after 9 AM heard that a second commercial aircraft had flown into the other WTC tower. Needless to say my wife's plans changed, however, another employee of her company who was scheduled to attend the same meeting boarded the ill fated United flight in Newark, NJ. That flight is the one that crashed near Shanksville, PA. ...
Just the passage of time. It's what happens if you don't strike while the iron is hot.
It's all in the timing & I think you're right, if he had ordered the bombing of iraq sooner, he would have had the support. Now it would take another attack on the U.S. to get the support back, but that's what the nay-sayers want, they want us to wait for another attack, not to pre-empt one!
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