United We Stand
Last night I took the time to buy and watch United 93, the 2006 film about America's first response to the attacks on 9/11. It occurred to me as I watched it how effective the unpredictable use of terrorism can be against a society that relies on government for everything, including defense. In the film, well-meaning, good people from all walks of life are shown in a state of well-controlled but utter confusion. As NORAD strove to protect America's landmarks, operations centers and cities, they could not react quickly enough to the events at hand.
It's easy to dismiss the ineffectiveness of the government's reaction to the attack at the time as being the result of not having our "war footing." We did not even understand who the enemy was and how big their plan was until all the planes in the air had either reached their targets, crashed into fields, or landed safely. Inconsistent information was coming in from different places, and I got a sense of hopelessness that resulted from the situation and confusion being portrayed, not the certainty of historical events. I was inundated with Hollywood movies, I guess, and was hoping for a different outcome until the very end, and I forgot just how real it all was--how real it all is.
But the war footing explanation doesn't hold water. Not really. The people in charge of NORAD were trained professionals, as were the members of the military responding to the atrocities that day. There was nothing at all wrong with their training. The effectiveness of the tactics used by the terrorists speaks directly to the absolute nature of big things to react slowly and the effectiveness of causing damage to big things--even kill them--through subterfuge.
Terrorism to America is what Death by A Thousand Cuts was to an unfortunate Chinese prisoner. It is never the first cut that kills. It is the accumulation of cuts over a period of time, which was usually followed by a coup de gras to finish off the prisoner, although such a stroke only hastened the inevitable.
The passengers and crew of United Flight 93 were truly America's first responders. It wasn't the government or the military, with all of their training, money and foreign intelligence who dealt the first blow to our attackers. It was ordinary folk just going about their business who, in one shining moment, inspired a nation to fight back in spite of the enormous difficulties.
It's easy to dismiss the ineffectiveness of the government's reaction to the attack at the time as being the result of not having our "war footing." We did not even understand who the enemy was and how big their plan was until all the planes in the air had either reached their targets, crashed into fields, or landed safely. Inconsistent information was coming in from different places, and I got a sense of hopelessness that resulted from the situation and confusion being portrayed, not the certainty of historical events. I was inundated with Hollywood movies, I guess, and was hoping for a different outcome until the very end, and I forgot just how real it all was--how real it all is.
But the war footing explanation doesn't hold water. Not really. The people in charge of NORAD were trained professionals, as were the members of the military responding to the atrocities that day. There was nothing at all wrong with their training. The effectiveness of the tactics used by the terrorists speaks directly to the absolute nature of big things to react slowly and the effectiveness of causing damage to big things--even kill them--through subterfuge.
Terrorism to America is what Death by A Thousand Cuts was to an unfortunate Chinese prisoner. It is never the first cut that kills. It is the accumulation of cuts over a period of time, which was usually followed by a coup de gras to finish off the prisoner, although such a stroke only hastened the inevitable.
The passengers and crew of United Flight 93 were truly America's first responders. It wasn't the government or the military, with all of their training, money and foreign intelligence who dealt the first blow to our attackers. It was ordinary folk just going about their business who, in one shining moment, inspired a nation to fight back in spite of the enormous difficulties.
posted by Cameron Beck at 6:49 AM
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