Under Siege
"This is pure, unadulterated evil."; "There was fire and smoke everywhere. It was surreal."; The terrorists flew on devil's wings in a horrifying moment, singular in history. They changed the course of a presidency, a nation, and, quite likely, the world
Someone declared war on the United States last week. We just don't know who. President Bush declared war in return. He just couldn't name an enemy. The first major conflict of the new century apparently comes with a unique twist: The adversary doesn't seem to have a border, an army, or a government. Its lone organizing principle is hatred--hatred of America.
And that, apparently, was enough. Enough to choreograph a plan of terror and devastation that fundamentally changes the basic calculus of life for the 285 million people living here, and for the uncounted millions the world over. Nineteen men with a killer's cold heart and a martyr's blind will boarded four commercial aircraft, hijacked them, then sacrificed their lives to kill, in just about an hour, twice the number of people slain at Pearl Harbor.
They did it with an obsessive's sense of patience and calculation, some living in our midst for more than a year, exploiting the most basic American freedoms to their own lethal ends. And they brought the nation's pastimes--baseball, football, and stock trading--to a screaming halt.
We are accustomed to a small measure of fear in our lives--from crime, natural disaster, even homegrown terror, like that at Oklahoma City. But we were not prepared for this. For this heinous combination of skill and blood lust. Until last week, such violence had largely been confined to the heart-rending images from the Middle East, someone else's distant tragedy, and endless strain.
Now, it has come home, testing the strength of the government and the resolve of the people. Three days after the attacks in New York and Washington, four of the five living former presidents sat grim-faced and impassive during a moving prayer service at the National Cathedral. President George W. Bush was there as well, seeking strength in spirit while he prepared to order the American response, a military counterpunch that many expect to be devastating, even disproportionate. "It will end in a way and at an hour," Bush said, "of our choosing."
It was as though the president was using the occasion to start the collective building of a national will for what promises to be a long, embittered, deadly struggle. He invoked Franklin Roosevelt when he spoke of the "warm courage of national unity." The approach seemed to be working. Just hours later, as he stood in the rubble of war-torn Lower Manhattan, the president, speaking on a bullhorn to rescue workers, was greeted with chants of "U.S.A., U.S.A!"
There are plenty of obstacles, however, between talk and action. U.S. officials have singled out a network of Islamic militants, led by Osama bin Laden, as the most likely culprit. Much of the world embraced Bush's vow to hit back and hit back hard. In official declarations, prayer vigils, and E-mails to friends, the world let America know loud and clear that Tuesday's attacks were their tragedy as well. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed his nation to deplore the "brazen challenge to civilized humanity."
"Target packages." The United States will need that kind of support, and much more, if it is to carry out what some in the Pentagon believe could be a massive and far-flung retaliation. Military sources tell U.S. News that options include everything from deploying ground troops in Afghanistan to invasions of as many as 10 nations sympathetic to the terrorists, principal among them Iraq and Iran. The Pentagon "has the target packages all ready," says a former Pentagon official.
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