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September 26,
2001
Why the
Attacks
May Have "Failed"
By David
Vest
Much airtime and bandwidth has been
devoted to the "brilliance" of the elaborately-planned
and well-executed September 11 terrorist strikes on New York
and Washington. Some of the commentary has sounded almost breathless
with admiration for the daring and co-ordination required to
put it all together and bring it off. But there is reason to
speculate, and to be grateful, that the attacks fell far short
of their planners' original hopes and expectations.
There is no mistaking the symbolic
importance of these events. Pictures of the Pentagon in flames
and the World Trade Towers collapsing captured the planet's attention
as nothing else has done since the first photographs of mushroom
clouds from nuclear detonations were circulated. For their intended
target audience, the images produced the intended effect: terror.
Elsewhere, others celebrated as though they were cheering rebels
from another galaxy who had blown up the Death Star.
Then, too, there were the images
of the American president, visibly shaken in Florida, flying
first to Louisiana, then to Nebraska. Though later Bush would
appear in command, especially in his address to both houses of
Congress, initial appearances were not reassuring. People understood
that protecting the security of the president was important,
but they also needed someone higher-up than Dan Rather to tell
them that the basic institutions of the country were intact.
As of this writing, more than
two weeks have passed since the attacks without a single shot
being fired in retaliation by the United States, and President
Bush's "wanted: dead or alive" rhetoric has been replaced
by appeals for "patience."
However important media images
may be, the events of September 11 did not take place in virtual
reality or cyberspace. They were not staged for television. The
goal of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers was not
merely to create unforgettable pictures. There is reason to believe
the perpetrators had anticipated killing as many as 250,000 people.
According to testimony from
his trial, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the terrorist convicted and sentenced
to 240 years in prison for masterminding and helping to carry
out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, told Secret Service
agent Brian Parr that he considered his plot to bomb the 110-story
twin towers a "disappointment" because one tower did
not collapse on the other and kill everyone who was working in
the towers, visiting them or circulating in the streets below.
It is unlikely that terrorist
goals have changed significantly since 1993. And if 250,000 people
was the anticipated body count at the World Trade Center, it
is reasonable to speculate that the intended damage at the Pentagon
was also significantly greater than the actual result.
Even if one were to discount
Agent Parr's testimony, the fact remains that 250,000 people
worked in or visited the World Trade Towers on an average day,
and that the death toll could easily have been substantially
higher than appears to be the case.
Indeed, the number of potential
and intended casualties of the September 11 attacks was far greater
than the number of American dead in the entire Vietnam War.
The goal was not merely to
topple symbols. It was to kill the maximum number of people.
By that measure the attacks
failed.
Full comprehension of the potential
gravity of the September 11 strikes reveals the bottomless depths
of the implacable hatred focused at the United States. We can
debate the causes of this hatred, even our own role in provoking
it, but the fact will remain that we are now facing it. It is
aimed at Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives and
radicals alike.
The very scale of the attacks
may also indicate the basis of a strategy: our government is
charged with defending not symbols but lives, not "our way
of life" but life itself. This is not about the flag. It
is about the population, and not only the American population.
The number of innocent lives at home and abroad that are already
at risk in this newly-proclaimed but very old "war"
is astronomical. Our goal should be to defend these lives, all
of them, and not to escalate the violence but to stop it.
We could start by proclaiming
something besides war.
To end the violence will require
not only a search for terrorists but a look at ourselves, not
to blame the victim but to determine what long-range policy changes
we could make to promote peace, avoid destabilizing entire world
regions, abort the spread of hatred and alleviate human misery.
Any effort to "dry up
the funding" for terrorism must include a look at our own
record of defense spending. We now know that much of the money
we spent or made training "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan
and selling armaments throughout the region eventually wound
up funding attacks on our own population. Some of it was used
by our allies in ways that led people to hate us.
Just as we require environmental
impact statements, we should demand a new accounting before appropriating
money for weapons and military training facilities: what is the
likelihood that these weapons and this training will one day
be used against us? If those who harbor terrorists are to share
their fate, what is to be the fate of those who armed and trained
them?
We should ask the same question
of any proposed military action: will this make our country and
the world safer, or will it come back to haunt us?
Meanwhile, on the domestic
front, speaking of threats to the American population, the news
is full of reports about people rushing out to buy handguns.
Apart from the likelihood that these handguns will wind up killing
a significant number of Americans, and ignoring the possibility
that terrorists themselves may be lining up to buy them at gun
shows, it is unclear how a handgun would have saved anyone in
the World Trade Towers.
David Vest is a writer, poet and piano player
for the Cannonballs. A native of Alabama, he now lives in Portland,
Oregon. Visit his webpage for samples of the Cannonballs' brand
of take no prisoners rock & roll and other Vest columns:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcqv
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