Please let's try to be calm. This is not, despite reports to the
contrary, another Pearl Harbor. It's as evil as Pearl Harbor, it's as
shocking as Pearl Harbor--maybe even more evil and more shocking--but
that's where the similarity ends.
If the United States represents the advance in civilization that we like
to believe it does, then we will not nuke population centers for the sake
of punishing a handful of guilty. We may declare war, if we can find a
specific state to punish; we will pursue the guilty to the ends of the
earth, I am sure; but we will not lash out blindly for the viscersal
satisfaction of vengeance.
The problem of this kind of terrorism, even if it is attributed to someone
like Bin-Ladn, is that it generally isn't the official action of any given
state. What seems to exist is a "distributed network" of terrorists who
can survive and operate precisely because they don't localize in any one
place. We might find that they have received bits of aid from various
mideast leaders, but even then we cannot justify annihilating millions of
people for the sake of punishing what could be a mere handful of guilty
men. Not if we're the civilization we claim to be.
Imperial Rome would have no problem wiping out a nation, of course. But
America's great claim is that we are not Rome. Our "greatness" will not
be measured by the quantity of people we kill in retaliation. It will be
measured by our ability shrug off this blow and rise above the terror and
anger it creates.
A prediction: missile defense systems and security-state caliber
precautions will not prevent this kind of terrorism. The nature of modern
civilization is that we harness huge amounts of power for the convenience
of large numbers of people. Our systems create control points that allow
small amounts of force--such as that required to hijack a plane--to be
leveraged for the creation of huge amounts of damage. No matter how great
our technology, and no matter how draconian our domestic security
arrangements, people willing to study our systems and culture will find
ways to compromise them. That, or when we have ruined ourselves for
the sake of an elusive concept of safety, they will laugh over a job
well done.
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
For music that won't bugger your soul: www.guyforsyth.com
"The ego that sees a 'thou' is fundamentally different from an ego that
sees an 'it.'" -- Joseph Campbell
