Terror, War, and Revenge
The date: 11 September 2001. The time: 9:03 AM EDT. The event: The second of two commercial aircraft crashes directly into the World Trade Center in New York City. As the images unfold on television, it seems almost surreal. This must be some fantastic clip from a soon-to-be released multi-million dollar movie. Surely such a thing cannot actually happen. Early information is vague and often contradictory. The planes were small jets; they were private planes; they were commercial airliners. Some witnesses think they were missiles. By 9:03 AM one fact is clear: This was definitely a deliberate act of terrorism.
But the evil does not end there. At 9:45 AM a plane crashes directly into the US Defense Department at the Pentagon. Flames leap from the Pentagon in Washington DC; in New York, the World Trade Center towers collapse. During the next day three buildings nearby also collapse, and fires still smolder.
At 10:10 AM a plane plunges into a field approximately eighty miles south of Pitsburgh. Then the White House and the Capitol and other important and tall structures throughout the country are evacuated. The Federal Aviation Administration orders all flights in progress to land at the nearest acceptable location. All international flights are re-routed to Canada. The only planes in America's skies are Air Force One and the military aircraft escorting it and patrolling the skies over Washington, DC and New York. The US military is placed at the highest levels of alert. Trading on the NYSE comes to an abrupt halt and does not resume for several days.
Congressional leaders are taken to secure locations. Vice-President Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice remain at the White House. While political and security advisers consider whether President Bush (who had been in Florida) should return to Washington or go to some other site, the President flies to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, then to another air base in Nebraska, and at six PM he returns to the capital.
Calls for a declaration of war emerge within hours of the attacks. With the prospect of more than five thousand people killed, the calls are well-founded. Many commentators use the analogy that 11 September 2001 is similar to 7 December 1941 in the sense that the US was attacked in a manner that fits the definition of an act of war. Although in many ways the analogy is inadequate, both dates will live in infamy, but for very different reasons.
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