A New America: Courageous, Calm, Resolved
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Winston S. Churchill in New York CityFrom the smoldering debris of what was once the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center and the battle-scarred Pentagon building in Washington, DC, the world is witnessing a new America rising Phoenix-like from the ashes.
Never before has America been tested in this way with a devastating, quite deliberate, attack upon her civilian population. Uniquely among the major combatants of World War II, America was spared the horrors of aerial bombardment of her civilian population. I am old enough to have memories of the silent terror from the sky in a war-torn London, subjected to bombs and to theV-1 and V-2 flying-bombs and rockets. There are others still alive who recall the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Those who do not know America have often wondered: How would America have stood up to such an ordeal? They have seen Americans as soft, spoiled, selfish and pampered, ill equipped to confront terror and pain, let alone to suffer injury and loss. They now have their answer.
The response of New Yorkers, in the face of the most vicious terrorist assault of history, has been magnificent to behold. The courage, the calm, the patriotism and the resolution of the ordinary people, has been an object lesson to us all.
I chanced to arrive in New York City last Monday night. Alerted by a phone call from a friend at 9:15 the next morning, I looked down Fifth Avenue to the Twin Towers, of which I had an uninterrupted view from my 44th floor vantage point in midtown Manhattan. To my horror and disbelief I saw these two giant icons of New York's pride and prosperity engulfed in flames and smoke. In the space of the next hour I watched, aghast and helpless as, one after the other, they imploded on themselves and disappeared from the skyline.
In the course of the next few days, I came to see New Yorkers in a new light. Gone was the brashness and bustle, so long the hallmark of its dynamic, go-getting citizenry. Instead I saw a vulnerable, emotional, caring New Yorker, each going out of their way to help their fellow citizens. In the
street friends would embrace in scenes of deep emotion, with tears of joy at finding each other alive, or tears of sorrow at the loss of a friend, whose life had just been blown away.The courage of the fire-fighters, racing unhesitatingly into the stricken buildings to fight the fires and to rescue the casualties, heedless of their own safety, though it was clear that the buildings could go at any moment, was magnificent and humbling. Tragically nearly 300 fire-fighters were lost fighting the fires and in the collapse of the buildings.
The courage of the passengers of United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in open country 90 miles from Pittsburgh, was equally remarkable. From calls made from the doomed Boeing 757 to loved ones, they were
aware of what had happened nearly an hour before at the Twin Towers and, it would appear, a number of the passengers resolved to rush the hijackers and overpower them, heedless of the danger to their own lives, in order to save the lives of others. We shall perhaps never know whether, on the other three doomed airliners, there were any comparable acts of heroism.I have seen the shocked, stunned but calm reaction of ordinary New Yorkers, helping one another, lining up by the hundreds to give blood and volunteering to help in any way they can. Through all the grief and sorrow, has burst a bright, gleaming patriotism. Old Glory flags are
everywhere. Over half a million national flags have been sold since Tuesday. This spontaneous outburst of patriotism by Americans of every race, every national background and of every color including Moslem and Arab Americans has been utterly remarkable. This is a nation that, despite its deep feelings of grief, is wrapping itself not in the black of mourning, but in the brilliant red, white and blue of the Stars and Stripes. Meanwhile many hundreds have lined up at recruiting offices to volunteer for military service.Anyone who knows America, knows that no one strikes her with impunity
something the Japanese learned to their cost. Comparisons have been made with Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, the day that President Roosevelt declared: will live in infamy! But Tuesday, 11 September 2001 has been far more terrible. Pearl Harbor was in the Hawaiian Islands“ not in the continental United States“ and the targets were exclusively military. In New York the targets were unambiguously civilian and the death toll, already exceeding 5,000, is already double the 2,403 Americans killed at Pearl Harbor.It must be admitted that the conception, planning and execution of
this grotesque terrorist attack has been, without exception, brilliant. The brazenness in their choice of targets: the prime symbols of America's financial and military might. The means of attack: flying bombs in the form of hijacked airliners not just any airliners, such as East Coast shuttles with a light fuel-load, but trans-continental Jumbo-jets at the start of their journeys loaded with 30 - 40 tons of aviation spirit. The choice of weapons used: box-cutters with blades barely an inch long, easily carried through airport security concealed in a computer, a radio or a CD-player, subsequently fixed to GRP handles, which would not even show up on X-rays. (Amazingly, it was only on Wednesday of this week that the FBI moved to ban the carrying of knives shorter than four inches on commercial airlines.)The scale of this criminal conspiracy, involving not only 18 kamikaze hijackers, but an estimated backup team of 30 (some 50 individuals all told)“ is enormous. The finance available was massive. The pilots, some with a military background, were well trained, many in US flight-schools. Though
the planning and training took two years or more, it was “quite amazingly“ carried out without any breach of security. These are not the hallmarks of a handful of determined terrorists acting alone. The finger of suspicion has been pointed at Osama bin Laden perhaps, indeed probably, correctly.But,
given the scale and military precision of the attack, one must also ask if the perpetrators did not have the strong backing of a nation-state. Could it be that, ultimately, the hand of Saddam Hussein will be found to be behind this, the greatest terrorist outrage ever perpetrated?For the United States and her allies, Tuesday's attack represents a catastrophic failure of intelligence. Despite the large numbers involved and the two years or more in which the operation was being actively planned, both
in America and abroad, not a hint of it was picked up by the CIA or FBI, nor by Britain's MI6 or Israelis Mossad.Part of the problem results from the fact that, in recent years, the US
has come to rely overwhelmingly on satellite and signals intelligence, at the expense of ˜humint“ human intelligence, which involves having agents on the ground and the infiltration of the command structures of potential enemies. This latter requires enormous dedication on the part of agents, who must prepared to risk their lives for their country. Britain certainly had some who, often at the cost of their lives, were prepared to operate behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War or infiltrate the structure of the IRA. Israel still has a limited number of such operatives. America and her allies will now have to dramatically overhaul the size and focus of their intelligence apparatus.In the face of this week's outrage, even the most hard-bitten isolationist must realize that no longer an option for the US to pull up the drawbridge and cut herself off from the world. She will need to assess, with far greater precision, just who are her real friends, and who her enemies. Alliances and allegiances will inevitably be re-evaluated. More than ever, America needs her allies and Tuesday's outrage could well be the catalyst for
NATO drawing together and finding a new sense of purpose and direction. But she will be expecting and requiring her allies to perform. No longer can Britain get away with tolerating the presence of her soil, under the guise of asylum seekers, of Islamic militants with terrorist connections. By the same token, France can no longer hope to stay friends with America, while making backdoor deals with Saddam, as she did in the early 1980's, when she shamelessly sold Iraq 72 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium sufficient to make 3 nuclear bombs, the obvious target for which was the state of Israel which, in the face of massive international condemnation, moved smartly to destroy the Osirak research facility with a long-range strike by the Israeli Air Force.Already Pakistan, which acted as godfather to Afghanistan's Taliban at its birth, is coming under fierce pressure to give its full co-operation to the US in its pursuit of Bin Laden and his supporters. There will be an inevitable realignment in ties and alliances and the US will almost
certainly look increasingly to Russia to join her in the fight against Fundamentalist Islamic terror. The terror attacks on New York and Washington have shattered America's sense of invulnerability, in the eyes of its own people and of the world. The ˜home of the brave and land of the free has been violated in the most flagrant way by the most ruthless and vicious terrorist attack ever seen.The Cold War, which for 45 years provided the world with an effective, if uneasy peace, is behind us. The gravity of the threat posed, not just to America, but to every Western country, by militant, fanatical Islam is only now dawning upon us and we are beginning to see the shape of future threats.
It is too early to know the form or timing of the American response. But, we may be sure, that it will be massive and devastating. Nor will it be a one-off. It will be a protracted ongoing campaign. Furthermore the policy of refusing to accept American casualties will be cast aside. From the President, right down to the ordinary American man and woman in the street, there is realization that America is at war. The conflagration that consumed the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon has sparked a deep down resolve to destroy this unseen, as yet unknown enemy and whoever may have given him sanctuary or backing. If American lives have to be sacrificed in order to prevail in this war then, so be it. It is a price America is now willing to pay. Let the enemies of America beware!
It is relevant to recall the words of my grandfather, Winston Churchill who, writing in his War memoirs of the Japanese attack on the US Navy at Pearl Harbor, declared: Silly people (and they were many, not only in
enemy countries) might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy and system of recurring elections would paralyze their war effort. They would just be a vague blur on the horizon to friend or foe. Now we would see the weakness of this numerous, but remote, wealthy and talkative people.But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of the remark, which Edward Grey (the British Foreign Secretary) had made to me more than 30 years before that the United States is like a giant boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it, there is no limit to the power it can generate.