September 11: An American Victory :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

September 11: An American Victory The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Washington DC has been described as an act of war and a tremendous defeat for the United States, a defeat that must not be allowed to be repeated and a loss that must be avenged. Personally, I don't like the use of the phrase "Act of War". Wars are something that happen between states. Wars end when one side surrenders. If we treat this as a literal war, what will be the victory conditions? Who will surrender? How will we know that the war is over? Whose suit for peace will be listened to? But, for the sake of discussion, let us ignore these concerns, let us concede for the nonce that the language of war is appropriate. Let us put aside the questions of who exactly the enemy is. We know, at least, who 19 of the other side's foot soldiers were. We know, more or less what happened. I'm willing to set these questions aside because I have become angry, angry about how we ourselves are viewing the outcome of this attack, and how we are letting the world view it. I am angry about how we are viewing the acts of heroes, and how we are view ourselves as a nation. Let me state this quite clearly...   The United States did not lose the Battle of September 11, 2001. Claiming that we did diminishes the heroism that Americans showed. It underestimates American strength and it misses some very important points about the American character. There were four phases of the battle, four attacks. The first two took us completely by surprise, and can easily be viewed as a two pronged attack. Two transcontinental planes flying from Boston were turned into bombs and used to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Because they had the element of surprise the enemy's first thrust was extremely effective. The battle started very badly for us. The third phase occurred in Washington DC. The enemy hijacked a third commercial airliner. This time, however, US intelligence and technology began to come into play. At least one passenger was able to contact the Justice Department, inform them of what was happening and ask what instructions should be passed to the pilot. I'm speaking here, of course, of Barbara Olson's phone call to the Solicitor General, her husband Ted.