Peggy Noonan: The Other Shoe

Opinion Journal ^ | 06/07/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

Obsessing over Sept. 11 distracts us from preventing the next attack.

We have come to quite a pass. The nation continues on high alert as our teenagers gulp antidepressants and Osama's spokesman tells us to fasten our seatbelt. The attorney general asks if his agents could please be allowed to surf the Internet; we debate that, and whether or not it would be insensitive to fingerprint young Mideastern males trying to enter America. Palestinian terrorists kill another 17 people in another suicide bombing on another Israeli road, and Israel hits back, with Yasser Arafat under siege for a few hours.

[goldstategop]

OIL. I wonder though why we don't ditch the Saudis and start exporting it from Alberta.

[DooDahhhh]

Delusional, malformed and mad...........says it all.

[BlessedAmerican]

Can you elaborate a bit more on the Saudi's being allowed to land planes here w/o declaring the passenger list? How do you know this? Is anyone else aware of this? I have never heard of this and would also like to know how our government allows this.

[Quilla]

Excellent, excellent.

[RobFromGa]

This is a great essay, and right on target, Peggy Noonan is a national treasure, and I wish President Bush would hire her to write speeches, or communicate with the press, ...

"Fiddling while Rome burned" comes to mind.

[Phaedrus]

We are in the middle of another systems failure.

This says it all, thanks, once again, to Peggy Noonan. Wake up, Senate! Wake up, Bush! Half-measures will not do. Profile young Arab/Islamic males. Use your common sense! Time is running out.

[Phaedrus]

The Senate this week was talking. That's what the Senate does ... Each senator must be seen on TV grilling the FBI director. This slows things, but it is assumed it will play well back home.

I live back home, and it doesn't play well with me.

Each senator cares about his or her reelection and little or nothing else. It is not about public service. What's wrong with this picture?

[kipj]

Bumping a great article. This is a must read.

[mc5cents]

This is what 40 years of flower-power-hippie-love-smoke-that-doobie philosophy has left us: Afraid to defend ourselves for it will make us appear hard and uncompassionate to our enemies.

And that brings to mind this great quote:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-- John Stewart Mill

[Aggie Mama]

Can you put me on your ping list, please?

[Pokey78]

You have been added.

[Aggie Mama]

I fit in that category -- I'm 31. I can tell you ALL of my friends and their families believe as I do. Most surprising to see are the few liberals that I have as friends; it's as if they are awaking from slumber to see the world as it really is. You don't have to be over 50 to be patriotic and want the best for our country.

[VOA]

It is a great regret of my life, and I am ashamed of it, that I did not attempt to intervene.
I knew that if I did I, dangerous middle-aged American female terror threat that I am,
would cause myself the kind of trouble that would mean missing the plane and disappointing
my son, who was at home waiting.

Note to parents -- if it had been my mom there and she had intervened and missed her
flight...I would have called that my mom's finest hour.

[Aggie Mama]

I think that the majority of us (those that are not part of the upper echelons of the government) do look at the big picture now. I really see this as a problem with the Congress. I have several friends that don't give much thought to politics. They all are wondering why on earth the Congress is holding hearings about 9/11 instead of doing something to prevent a future attack. I smiled and told them to call or fax their rep and ask them.

[Aggie Mama]

We have a friend whose daughter was on Flt. 93. The family got to hear a lot more about what happened than what we will ever know. Although I don't know everything, I can tell you that from what they were able to piece together, the people on that flight died defending their country.

[Steve0113]

Would you please consider moving here to fly-over country? True, it's not quite as cosmopolitan as New York, and true, it's not quite as scenic as New York; however, it's also not likely to be the number one or number two target on your average terrorist's hit list.

It's also upwind.

[Steve0113]

witnesses say the plane started breaking up BEFORE it hit the ground. Doesn't take an Einstien to figure that one out.

Have you considered the possibility that the plane was coming apart because it was traveling at well above its maximum rated speed? Considering that it was diving, that's very possible, even likely.

That's what happened with the second WTC plane. It was doing about 100 MPH more than the first plane (about 475 MPH, IIRC), and pieces were coming off it just before impact.

[Amelia]

Thanks Pokey78! I wish I could express my thoughts as well as Ms. Noonan does - she certainly hits the nail on the head!

[Dick Bachert]

While SOME HEADS SHOULD ROLL over the bureaucratic screw-ups leading to 9-11, we'd better be looking to the NEXT situation.

Since 9/11, anyone -- ANYONE -- who stands up in the aisle of a commercial flight and announces that he/she/it (gotta be PC, ya know!) is taking over the aircraft will almost immediately

A) have the dog squeeze kicked outta him/her/it or

B) quickly assume cabin temperature

all courtesy of the passengers/crew who now know they're probably gonna die anyway and have nothing to lose by going for it. A friendly firearm would just make it a hell of a lot easier and more certain.

But, of course, none of these pesky little tidbits of info help the cause of expanding government, sooooo.... we get Barney -- NOT the ubiquitous purple dinosaur who is better qualified for the position, we get the other one -- and virtual strip searches of 80 year-old grandmothers.

The only thing that frightens me more than the government dorks who spend their lives covering their asses and shuffling papers while really bad people plot to kill more of us are the American people who fail/refuse to hold their alleged "servants" accountable.

WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY THEY FIRST MAKE INSANE!

[Kobyashi1942]

Have you considered the possibility that the plane was coming apart because it was traveling at well above its maximum rated speed? Considering that it was diving, that's very possible, even likely.

Perhaps you were or still are unaware that this plane didn't go down for almost an hour after the last plane had hit the Pentagon. F-16's were airborne and were being vectored to this specific plane well before this plane went into the ground. Witnesses also at the time say a smaller plane was flying some distance behind the hijacked plane.

Look, if it was shot down by the USAF I'm not overjoyed that they had to do it (I feel horrible for the lives of those passengers and crew), but I'm thankful that our government has the guts to do what NEEDS to be done.