Our children and grandchildren will remember September 11, 2001 first, December 7 and June 6 and all the other dates second.
There are moments when the world changes, inexorably. For the worse, at that precise moment, though in the long run sometimes for the better, hard as that is to see. This day, 50 years from now, may be remembered as the day that the World found the courage to eradicate terrorism.
There will be lots of talk about what to do. About the loss of life. Later, about the economic impact. There will be a time for that discussion later.
More Americans just died than in most, if not all, of the Vietnam War. The response will be severe, there can be no doubt about that. It may even include a declaration of war, air war, ground war, acceptance of casualties on our side and civilian casualties in other countries. It may involve a new policy, that any country that supports terrorism economically or otherwise will be brought before a World Court, and if they refuse, the major industrialized nations will invade.
Does that sound harsh? The World just changed. The rules just changed. Inside that rubble are lots of bodies. And also inside that rubble, and inside the wreckage of those passenger jets with burned out bodies, is a new resolve not only in the U.S. but in the entire civilized World that certain types of dissent are not tolerable. There will be no close vote in Congress about declaring such a war. There will be far fewer protestors than we saw ten years back, the last time we talked of war.
It will not be pretty. It will not be a good period of history to have lived through. But now, the challenge we face is not unlike that faced by our grandfathers and grandmothers in the late 1930's: Deal with the threat from the heart of evil, or leave our children and grandchildren enslaved to that evil.
It will be a difficult choice to make for some. But history will not view it as a difficult choice. History will view it as a necessary choice. |
