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New York — The Grim Reaper visited New York on a picture perfect September morning. On 11 September 2001, with chilling and calculated coordination and brutal focused force, the hydra-headed monster of international terrorism methodically attacked sites in New York and Washington D.C. America came under attack.
What evoked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but without the formal calling card, saw an assualt on America's financial and political capital in 2001. The destruction of the World Trade Center, a commercial symbol of America throughout the world and the attack on the Pentagon, and a planned crash into the White House, were decisive targets for those who harbor that special venom for the USA.
The apocalyptic events stunned New York as if in a horror movie; hijacked airliners smashing into skyscrapers, the City on full terror alert, total shutdown of American airspace, and an evacuation of all sensitive sites such as the United Nations and Financial Markets.
The burning World Trade Center towers presented a surrealistic spectacle. At first the twin towers looked like two giant smokestacks belching black smoke into the clear blue September sky. Before long the buildings buckled and collapsed. I witnessed this from a distance and saw one tower implode into a vast cloud of gloom and destruction.
Those who lulled themselves into the ignorant mantra "it can't happen here," were riveted by this catastrophic reality.
For those who looked the other way when terror struck in Israel, Northern Ireland, Spain, Turkey and so many places "somewhere else," let them look at New York and Washington and see the stark price of pleasant indifference. Let them view the destruction and then speak of tolerance for terrorism's "gray area issues and causes," and let them see the dead and mangled bodies.
And what of the warnings? Last October's attack on the Navy's USS Cole, a sitting duck moored in Aden port; the earlier bombings on American embassies in East Africa, or the US Air Force housing in Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia — offered plentiful warnings. But for a generation an emasculated CIA, FBI, and City Police forces could not seriously monitor, track down, and bring such groups to justice until a formal crime had been committed.
Anti-terrorist measures were politically grandstanded for too long as the violent groups gained in sophistication, state support, and capability. Moreover porous access into the U.S. and indeed domicile in American cities allowed these thugs to establish networks and cells virtually unnoticed.
Naturally while many terrorist groups may boast of trying to carry out such carnage, the gap between their wish list and the actual capacity to carry out such sophisticated attacks is wide indeed. The attacks on New York and Washington would need not only willpower but serious coordination and technical capability, something beyond most of the traditional suspects, except Osama Bin-laden perhaps with the blessing of Islamic Iran.
Longtime State sponsors of terror — such as Libya, Iran and Iraq were often politely excused in recent years by the all knowing experts who would glibly rationalize that Colonel Gadaffi has changed, Iran wishes to do business with the West, and that we should drop sanctions on Saddam's Iraq.
Ironically such Islamic fundamentalist movements are as much of a threat to moderate Arab states as to the West.
President George W. Bush is correct to stress that America must not only track down the perpetrators of these cowardly assualts against our freedom, but moreover not exclude those countries which allow the terrorists safe haven. The President warned these are "More than an acts of terror, they were acts of war."
Paraphasing the Reagan Doctrine towards terrorists "You can run but you can't hide," the US must apply the time honored counter-measures to preempt the crime, not to react to its grisly aftermath. Effective counter terrorist measures, "Infiltrate, isolate, and liquidate" must become an option, and strategy should replace shorterm solutions.
Eight years ago, the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamic terrorists. The evening of the blast, I recall seeing one tower blacked out and the other lit — almost defiantly as if to prove the Center had survived. Ever since I was happy seeing the Twin Towers, proudly illuminated as part of the lower Manhattan skyline. That symbol of commerce has sadly been extinguished, but hopefully a renewed flame of American resolve has been relit. President Bush was indeed right to say that the future holds a "Monumental struggle of good versus evil." The battle is joined; America's terrible swift sword must now be put to the terrorists.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
