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Courtesy of IAFF.org the firefighters union home page.
Dennis Smith, Firehouse Magazine Founder, Describes His Worst
Nightmare
The second tower has just collapsed. I am at Ladder 16, and the firefighters have commandeered a crowded
67th Street cross-town bus. We go without stopping from Lexington Avenue to the staging center on Amsterdam. We don't
talk
much on the bus, and not a single passenger complains about missing his or her stop.At Amsterdam we board another bus, and
here the quiet is broken by a Lieutenant who says, "We'll see things today we shouldn't have to see,
and there
will be things we might think we should attend to, but listen up,we'll do it together. We'll be together, and we'll all come
back together boys." He opens a box of dust masks and gives two to each of us.It is like approaching a beach as we walk
down West Street, passing
hundreds of waiting emergency vehicles. First there is a little concrete dust,like powdered
soft sand, and then suddenly every step kicks up a cloud. There is paper debris everywhere, strewn between window casings,
air conditioner
grates, and large chunks of what had once been the tallest structures in the world.We report to the
command chief who is standing ankle deep in mud between the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center. The original
command chief, Peter Ganci, along with the physical command center are missing,now somewhere beneath these mountains of cracked
concrete and bent steel of the second collapse.
Just before that collapse, a falling woman killed a firefighter, and
Father Judge was giving him the last ites. Bill Feehan, the First Deputy Commissioner, was standing next to them. And then
the building came down.Now, several hundred firefighters are milling about. There is not much
for us to do except pull
hose from one location to another as a pumper and a ladder truck are repositioned. It is like the eye of a storm, eerily quiet,and
so unlike the multiple alarm emergencies I am used to. No sirens.No helicopters. Just the sound of two hose lines, watering
the six stories
of the hotel on West Street that are still standing. The low cackle of the department radios fade into
solemn air. The danger is now presented by the burning 47-story building before us, just to the north of the World Trade
Center. The command chief has ordered the firefighters from that building,and we are now waiting for it to collapse.
I want to see the destruction from the Liberty Street side of the buildings,and I travel through the World Financial Center,
the headquarters of American Express and Merrill Lynch. There has been a complete evacuation,and I am the only person in the
building. It seems the building has been
abandoned for fifty years, for there are several inches of dust on the floors.
The large and beautiful atrium of the building is in ruins, the east side wall completely published, and the glass canopy
above broken through and hanging in large and threatening pieces Because of the pervasive gray dusting, I cannot read the
street signs as I make my way to the other side. Many cars and trucks are overturned. From here I can see the gaping holes
in the side of the Verizon Building. There is a lone fire company down a narrow street wetting down a smoldering pile.
The mountains of debris in every direction are fifty and sixty feet high. I am still stunned by the wreckage, and it is
only now that I begin to think of the human toll, of the silent thousands that are unseen before me in this utter ruin.I am
again on the West Street side, and the chiefs begin to push us back towards the Hudson. Number 7 is about to fall, and when
it does, we all think to run for cover, into stores, behind ambulances, around a corner.But, it is an incredible thing to
watch a 47-story building fall. The
regality of a high building is transformed in a few seconds to mere rubble.And,
now I think that this building has fallen on those we seek.No one wants to say a number. We know that entire companies are
unaccounted for. The department's elite squads, Rescue 1, Rescue 2, Rescue 3, and Rescue 4 are not heard from. Just last week
I talked with a group of Rescue 1 firefighters about the difficult and rigid prerequisites to get into the rescue companies
- the endorsements from other company commanders and the tests of mechanical and engineering skills. I remember thinking then
that these were truly unusual men, smart and thoughtful, the kind of men into whose arms I would put the lives of my children.I
know the captain of Rescue 1, Terry Hatten. He is married to the Mayor's assistant, Beth Patrone, and one of those universally
loved and respected
men in the job. I think about Terry, and about Paddy Brown. Paddy is one of a small cadre of most
decorated firefighters in the history of the department, and in the nineties he was on the front page of all the newspapers
when he lowered one of his men on a rope to pick up a victim in a Times Square fire.And I think of Brian Hickey, the Captain
of Rescue 4, who just last month survived the blast of the Astoria fire that killed three firefighters,
including two
of his own men. I remember the sadness in his eyes at the funerals. And, now. He was working with Rescue 3 today. And then
there is Ray Downey, the Battalion Chief who led the FDNY collapse specialists to Okalahoma City, a solid and giving man.I
am pulling a heavy six-inch hose through the muck when I see Mike Carter,the Vice-president of the firefighters union, on
the hose just before me.
He's a good friend, and we barely say hello to each other. I see Kevin Gallagher, the union
president, who is looking for his son who is unaccounted for. Someone calls to me. It is Jimmy Boyle, the retired president
of the union, the man who gave us such great leadership in my time in the job. "I can't find Michael," he says.
Michael Boyle, his son, was
with Engine 33, and the whole company is missing. I can't say anything to Jimmy, but just
throw my arms around him.
The immediate danger over, the army of construction workers, police officers, EMTs and firefighters
begins to work. People who have never met begin working side by side as if they have practiced for months. Cars are lifted,
hoses and fire trucks moved, and the heavy equipment is brought in.As I watch the steelworkers they progress in my mind from
admirable to heroic.I don't have boots and I am wet to the knees. I will 'take up" as we say,and go home. At the end
of this horrific day I think of Shakespeare's
line about evil living forever, and I realize how most of the good of
everything I know about this world is interred beneath the rubble before me. It will be days before there is a final accounting,
and I can only hope against hope
for the people I have mentioned.They have been friends of mine for many years. It
was from their lives that New York's firefighters learned how to keep their chins up in danger,and how to get down on their
knees when help is needed. It is because of them,and this terrible number of lost firefighters, whatever number that might
be, that inspiration will be found to go on with our lives.<BR>
The last thing I see is Kevin Gallagher kissing
another firefighter. It is his son.
Charles Cowles
Editorial by Leonard Pitts, Jr. a columnist with the Miami Herald
It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the
American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I
can find to
say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering. You monster. You beast. You
unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our
World Trade Center, our Pentagon,
us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause?
You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You
just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart?
You just brought us together. Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial,
social, political and class division,but a
family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional
energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too,
spoiled
by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with
a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We
struggle
to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith,believers in a just and
loving God. Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're
mistaken.We are not weak.
Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in
shock. We're still
grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand
that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.Both
in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final
death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as
the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world.You've bloodied us
as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf
of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This
is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard,the last time anyone brought us
such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused,
we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by
this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.I tell you
this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me
to tremble with dread of the future. In the days to come, there will be
recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing
to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened
security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined,
too. Unimaginably
determined. You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is
seldom understood by people who don't know us well.On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will
weep,as
Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. So I ask again: What
was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.If that's the
case, consider the message received. And take this message
in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what
we're capable of.You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn.
A simple message from a simple guy.
Proposed skyline for NYC
copied..
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
Thomas Jefferson
Now is the time for President Bush to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Agreed
we are not certain who was responsible for these acts of undeclared war. But when we are certain then he will designate and
conduct acts of war against the perpetrators. This is not be about retaliation nor is it about justice; it is war. The goal
should not be to hit back but pursuit until surrender or complete destruction.
From a fellow American:
It
has been difficult for me to concentrate on anything here today following the horrific acts which have occurred. In the Military
I was part of the Army Security Agency, an electronic intelligence command. The unit was a
"super classified" arm of the
military by which I received some awesome perspective of "life in general".To say, or feel,. that any one of us is not effected,
seriously, by
this act of war today, would be a statement of irrationality and utter stupidity.The reality of this event,
and the realization of certain future similar events,
hopefully no worse, is inevitable.I have had calls from so many
people who are physically and emotionally ill due to this matter, even though they don't have directly related
relatives
or friends involved. The reason for this reaction is that they know THEY and ALL of US have been attacked. You could have
been in one of those 4 planes, or you could have been in or near the towers seeing that plane or debris
bearing down on
you.Yes I am an idealist, and the first to advocate this incredible United States we live in.I have visited almost 20 other
countries and realize how lucky
we are, despite the politics, the lobbyists and you name it.
No, I'm not one to "vent"
like this in any other major event but like all of you, I am sure, I want to do SOMETHING, and this is my first attempt.Personally,
I believe that not only the government needs to display a
MAJOR and prolific response to this matter, I STRONGLY believe
that the American people need to display some "common sign" that will spread throughout the world as a SIGNAL to the WORLD
that the AMERICAN PEOPLE, each and
every one,will not STAND TO BE PUT IN THE POSITION OF HOSTAGES OR ANY LESS THAN AWESTRUCK
by these events. This event today is as bad and likely worse,depending on how you calculate it, than PEARL HARBOR. How do
we EACH as American's SEND A COMMON SIGNAL to the WORLD, and particularly to ALL TERRORISTS, that we DESPISE THIS EVENT and
THESE COWARDS, and that many of us will ACT ACCORDINGLY whenever we can to prevent any such coward or event from ever occurring.
It is not important as to the TYPE OR SUBSTANCE OF OUR COMMON "SIGNAL". What is important is that we EVIDENCE OUR SPIRIT AND
CONCERN over such HORRIFIC events.I've never hung a "Yellow Ribbon", or erected a sign, or protested except one protest in
my life.But I do suggest that if we pass this message on to, ultimately, millions of people throughout the Internet, that
we
WILL SHOW A UNITY AS TO THIS MATTER, that will surpass any other evidence of unity since World War II.
A SIMPLE
SIGNAL of this would be to attach a BLACK or DARK ribbon at your home and/or and on your car, your clothes, on highways, or
wherever you wish.
PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO EVERYBODY AND ANYBODY YOU HAVE ADDRESSES FOR.I CAN JUST ABOUT GUARANTY THAT
REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU MAY THINK, YOUR EFFORT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN MANY WAYS, INCLUDING TO THOSE DIRECTLY AFFECTED WHO
MAY
NOT KNOW THAT SO MANY OF US ARE CONCERNED, AND ULTIMATELY TO THOSE WHO MAY NOT CARE BUT ARE THE TERRORISTS OF THE
WORLD.A FORMER JAPANESE COMMANDER SAID THE DAY OF THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK," I BELIEVE WE HAVE AWAKENED A SLEEPIING GIANT ".
"Inteligence???"
Intelligence Had Hints, No Red Flags .....By JOHN SOLOMON
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid
a growing crush of intelligence on possible terrorist threats, there were hints before Tuesday of something big to come. But
nothing that raised suspicion of what eventually happened. With the advantage of hindsight, U.S. officials now wonder whether
there were clues, overlooked or unobvious, to the devastating attacks
that rocked New York and Washington and forever
changed Americans' sense of security. The officials said there is one thing not in dispute: No intelligence directly forewarned
of the sort of attack that occurred. But all
fragmentary pieces of intelligence are being looked at in a new light,
according to more than a half-dozen officials who spoke to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity.For instance,
in Minnesota, FBI agents a few weeks ago detained an Arab man who tried to get training on a flight simulator for a Boeing
747 jetliner. His request was suspicious, but not illegal, officials said.FBI agents had nothing to charge him with, but they
performed a
routine check of his immigration status and decided the government should start deportation.Within hours
of Tuesday's attacks, when early information emerged that
the hijackers had had flight training to carry out their suicide
attacks, the Minnesota man re-emerged with significance. He matched the hijackers' profile.The man has been detained, but
is refusing to cooperate and has a
lawyer, law enforcement officials say."Nothing was there to lead us to believe
any activity he was up to could lead to what happened on Tuesday,'' one law enforcement official
said."After Tuesday,
everything looks different and we're following up.'' In late August, the CIA obtained information about a Middle Eastern who
had been connected to Osama bin Laden through intelligence reports linking
him to various meetings of terrorist-linked
groups. The information was specific and credible enough that the CIA contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service
and suggested the man and an accomplice be added to a terrorist watch list designed to prohibit them from
entering the
United States, officials said.The INS came back and said it believed the men were already in America.
The CIA then passed
the information to the FBI, officials said.Both men on the watch list ended up among the 18 suspected hijackers who took down
four planes Tuesday, officials have told the AP.Also, a month ago the CIA issued a renewed warning, based on incoming intelligence,
that bin Laden was pressing anew for terrorist action against
Americans.Such warnings about bin Laden have been issued
from time to time.CIA Director George Tenet had made a very public warning about bin Laden earlier this year.But the August
warning was based on new intelligence, fresh enough to justify a new report. The warning did not have specific information
on the type of attack, a date or a location -- just that one of America's biggest nemeses was posing new threats. Now the
government, including Secretary of State Collin Powell,says there is increasing evidence that bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi exile
and accused global terrorist living in Afghanistan, is behind Tuesday's attacks,possibly involving other terrorist groups
as well.Officials also said that in the weeks before the twin suicide attacks
on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon, a foreign intelligence agency tipped a U.S. law enforcement agency that a possible bin Laden associate from
the Middle East was in Boston. The agency checked into the information, but ascertained that the man was no longer in Boston,
where several bin Laden supporters are known
to live, officials said.Two of the planes that were hijacked Tuesday and
crashed into the World Trade Center originated in Boston. The inevitable Monday morning quarterbacking likely will rekindle
the question across America and in Congress of whether the U.S. intelligence
community has lost its edge or has been
deprived of the resources it needs. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Thursday that debate should not focus on assessing
blame for the past but on avoiding future mistakes.
"I think we need to put resources in human intelligence
and I think we need to re-evaluate our whole intelligence regime,'' Hastert said.
Nostradamus...a hoax
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Claim: A 1654 Nostradamus prediction said World War III would
begin with the fall of "two brothers," a reference to the destroyed World Trade Center towers. Status: False. Example: [Collected
on the Internet,
2001] "In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the
fortress endures, the great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
Nostradamus
1654 Origins: The turmoil of recent events has us all scrambling, some to look for solace and meaning, others for the terrorists
responsible, and yet others for signs that what happened could have been
prevented or at least foreseen. The 11 September
2001 attack on America destroyed not only the two World Trade Center towers in New York City, a chunk of the Pentagon in Washington,
and caused untold loss of life, it also
shook America's sense of invulnerability. No longer do Americans presume safety
in an unsafe world. For some, that realization is an eye-opener, unsettling but necessary, in that a child's blissful unawareness
has been
replaced (at great cost) with an adult's more clear-eyed view of the world and its sometimes horrifying ways.
For others, it spells the beginning of the end, in that they equated an illusion of safety with its reality and thus now
feel
their world is ending. It is the fears of that second group that are given voice in the Nostradamus prediction circulated
on the Internet even before the dust had settled in New York. The French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (1503-1566)
penned numerous quatrains populated by obscure imagery that the credulous have ever after attempted to fit to the events of
their times. These predictions can often ring somewhat true in that the
images employed are so general they can be found
in almost every event of import, but by the same token, the prophesies are never a dead-on fit because the wordings are far
too general. Not that this stops anyone from believing
in them; our society's need for mysticism runs far too deep to
ever allow for that. Those looking for the certainty of a Nostradamus prophesy come true have been known to sledge hammer
the results to force a fit by inventing
fanciful translations from the original French, bend over backwards to assert
one named term is really another, and (as in this case) outright fabricate part or all of the prediction. Nostradamus did
not write the quatrain now
being attributed to him. (One wonders how a guy who died in 1566 could have written an item
identified as being penned in 1654 anyway.) It originated with a student at Brock University in Canada in the 1990s, appearing
on a web
page essay on Nostradamus. That particular quatrain was offered by the page's author, Neil Marshall, as a fabricated
example to illustrate how easily an
important-sounding prophecy can be crafted through the use of abstract imagery. He
pointed out how the terms he used were so deliberately vague they could be interpreted to fit any number of cataclysmic events.
(A dissertation
on how a somewhat similar-sounding real prophesy of Nostradamus' has been interpreted in a variety of
wildly different ways can be found here.) It appears someone mistook Marshall's illustrative example for an actual
Nostradamus
prophecy and, not content to let well enough alone, added "The third big war will begin when the big city is burning." A fabrication
was thus further fabricated. But that wasn't the end of it. More fakery was
piled on in later versions that now included
all of the text quoted in the Example section above but now concluded with: "on the 11th day of the 9 month that...two metal
birds would crash into two tall statues...in the new
city... and the world will end soon after" Similarly, another enhanced
version incorporates the Example text into a more detailed prophecy: And Nostradamus predicted this (who knows how long ago):
"In the year of the new century and nine months, From the sky will come a great King of Terror... The sky will burn at forty-five
degrees. Fire approaches the great New ..." "In the city of york there will be a
great collapse, 2 twin brothers torn
apart by chaos while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
Needless to say, these versions are
as fake as the first was.
This was written previously but it remains true.
America: The Good Neighbor from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian
television commentator.
This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and
possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted
out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.None of these
countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.When France was in danger of collapsing
in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris.
I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring,
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American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions
of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane.
Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?
If so, why don't they fly them?Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?Why does no other land
on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios.
You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles.
You talk about American technocracy, and you find men
on the moon-not once, but several times-and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs
right in the store window for everybody to look at.
Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here
on our streets, and most of them, unless> they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa
at home to spend here.When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans
who rebuilt them.When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose.Both
are still broke.I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me
even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?I don't think there was outside help even during the San
Francisco earthquake.Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked
around.They will come out of this thing with their flag high.And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose
at the lands that are gloating over their present
troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand
proud, America!
Letter from someone from Afghanistan..
Dear Friends,
Yesterday
I heard a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio allowed that this would
mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral
damage," and he asked, "What else can we do? What is your suggestion?"
Minutes later I heard a TV pundit discussing whether
we "have the belly to do what must be done."
And I thought about these issues especially hard because I am from Afghanistan,
and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's been going on over there. So I want to share
a few thoughts with anyone who will listen.I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in
my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I fervently wish to see those monsters punished.But
the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant
psychotics who captured Afghanistan in 1997 and have been holding the country in bondage ever since. Bin Laden is a political
criminal with a master plan.When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think
"the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing
to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators.
They would love for someone to eliminate the
Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. I guarantee it.Some say, if that's the
case, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban themselves? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, damaged,
and incapacitated. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a
country with no economy, no food. Millions of Afghans are widows of the approximately two million men killed during the war
with the Soviets. And the Taliban has been executing these women for being women and have buried some of their opponents alive
in mass graves. The soil of Afghanistan is littered with land mines and almost all the farms have been destroyed . The Afghan
people have tried to overthrow the Taliban. They haven't been able to.We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back
to the Stone Age.Trouble with that scheme is, it's already been done. The Soviets took care of it . Make the Afghans suffer?
They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals?
Done. Destroy their infrastructure? There is no infrastructure. Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late.Someone
already did all that.New bombs would only land in the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely.
In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. (They have
already, I hear.) Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have
wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific
thing. Actually it would be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all
this time
So what else can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden
is to go in there with ground troops. I think that when people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" many
of them are thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. They are thinking about overcoming moral qualms
about killing innocent people. But it's the belly to die not kill that's actually on the table. Americans will die in a land
war to get Bin Laden.And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout.
It's much bigger than that, folks. To get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us?
Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first.Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going.
The invasion approach is a flirtation with global war between Islam and the West.And that is Bin Laden's program. That's exactly
what he wants and why he did this thing. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. At the moment, of course,
"Islam" as such does not exist. There are Muslims and there are Muslim countries, but no such political entity as Islam. Bin
Laden believes that if he can get a war started, he can constitute this entity and he'd be running it. He really believes
Islam would beat the west.It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's
got a billion soldiers. If the West wreaks a holocaust in Muslim lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose,
even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong about winning, in the end the west would probably overcome--whatever
that would mean in such a war; but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has
the belly for that? Bin Laden yes, but anyone else?I don't have a solution. But I do believe that suffering and poverty are
the soil in which terrorism grows. Bin Laden and his cohorts want to bait us into creating more such soil, so they and their
kind can flourish. We can't let him do that. That's my humble opinion.
Links To Web Pages
America Triumphant *****
The World Trade Center
A Firsthand Account *****
Attacks on America What you can do
Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
Light a candle for peace
A Tribute
Nine One One
Imagine All The People
Pictures of Thw WTC
America's Tragedy is felt by the World
Candlelight Services
America Attacked; Profiles of the Lost
The Human Toll:Profiles of Victims
an open letter to a terrorist
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