Usama Bin Laden | Tora Bora | Daisycutter | Daisy cutter | Al Qaeda

Future generations will emphasize that we were supplied with a powerful precipitating event. Every war is sparked by a precipitating event (The Ride of Paul Revere and the Battle at Lexington and Concord; the attack of Fort Sumter; Remember the Maine; the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand; the bombing of Warsaw, Poland; Pearl Harbor; the Gulf of Tonkin Incident) which legal historians analyze and debate for years to come. Few precipitating events are, however, as clear, cogent and compelling as the terrorist strike against the World Trade Center and Pentagon followed by George Bush's demands upon the Taliban and indictment of the radical Islamic fundamentalists in his address to the Joint Session of Congress on the evening of September 20, 2001.

These men whom we call terrorists emerged from a crushing poverty ... a poverty of the soul ... and the very bread they ate tasted of hopelessness. Indeed, these men were deeply conflicted, and their crimes flowed from their pagan imaginations ~ not from the teachings of Islam. Their salvation was an orgasm of violence.

Until now, conventional wisdom would have dictated that the captives in the hijacked airplane remain calm and hopefully survive. These terrorists have now taken survival out of the equation, and the brave passengers in United's Flight #93 have redefined the conventional wisdom to include the option of storming the hijackers and to go down fighting. Let us refer to this new conventional wisdom as "The United 911 Syndrome." The clarion call from the antiwar movement ("Hell No, We Won't Go!") takes on a new meaning. Until now, the impulse to fight back would have been viewed as unthinkable. Until now, a standing Presidential Executive Order to fire upon a passenger airliner would have been characterized as madness. But these men whom we call terrorists have successfully penetrated the delicate restraining membrane of our collective sanity.

We must not permit Middle Eastern Charlatans to dissuade us from the mission to bring justice to these barbarians. We must not believe the Charlatans who say that "America needs to re-examine itself and re-evaluate its policies." What these terrorists have done cannot be explained or justified by attacking the American Dream. What these terrorists have done is brutal and savage and now requires a grim retribution.

President Bush will likely face opposition unparalleled in history. As soon as American youth are sent home and off-loaded in body bags at Andrews Air Force Base, the anti-war movement will challenge his policy as bad logic, bad morality and bad law and the remorselessly rationalistic Press will parse his every word. But the Bush Administration does indeed have the intellectual collateral to back up the guarantee of their bright promises and political solvency ~ it is all set forth in the words of last night's address to Congress. The guarantee is that we will stand toe to toe and face to face and cheek to jowel with the terrorists and defeat them. We cannot permit the evil and the cruelty of men like Osama Bin Laden to fasten on the human spirit like a blight.

Cynics will stop at nothing to sabatoge the struggle and never tire of accusing our President of pulling out of his narrative hat the values that he has smuggled up his normative sleeve. Granted, George Bush is human and flawed, but he has set his hand to the plow, and he has promised to plow the end of the furrow. He has my support. He has marshalled the troops and inspired the country. We must cast our lot with Mr. Bush in this unmistakable contest between Good and Evil.

~ by Gary L. Wolfstone, September 20, 2001, Seattle, WA.

R e m e m b e r t h e W o r l d T r a d e C e n t e r