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the rhetoric of war
I've been struck by Bush's promise that the US will 'root out the evildoers' and make sure that this never happens again. Tuesday's attacks were indeed heinous and audacious, but were they very much different in spirit than a drive-by shooting where innocent civilians are killed? What about Columbine? I don't understand how it could be possible to eliminate this kind of evil from the world in one fell swoop. The decades-long present conflict between Israel and Palestine is only one example of how violence begets violence, and starts in motion a cycle that is exceedingly difficult to stop.
One of the more disturbing things about these acts was that the perpetrators lived as regular US citizens for several months before carrying out the attacks. They most probably appeared as regular people to anyone who saw them, and you would probably not have given them a second glance if you saw them on your own street. They probably even conducted several trial runs on those same flights to ensure that they could pass through security checks with their weapons. I'm not personally convinced that everyone is magically safe now that the government and the military are on high alert.
However, in the final analysis, it would seem that all of these actions are but a simple reflection of the basic reality of our world today. How could they have happened if they weren't? I won't be surprised if we find ourselves in a war. It doesn't feel to me like the natural next step, but opinion polls in the US don't seem to be reflecting my opinion very much these days. If they ever did, I suppose...
One of the more disturbing things about these acts was that the perpetrators lived as regular US citizens for several months before carrying out the attacks. They most probably appeared as regular people to anyone who saw them, and you would probably not have given them a second glance if you saw them on your own street. They probably even conducted several trial runs on those same flights to ensure that they could pass through security checks with their weapons. I'm not personally convinced that everyone is magically safe now that the government and the military are on high alert.
However, in the final analysis, it would seem that all of these actions are but a simple reflection of the basic reality of our world today. How could they have happened if they weren't? I won't be surprised if we find ourselves in a war. It doesn't feel to me like the natural next step, but opinion polls in the US don't seem to be reflecting my opinion very much these days. If they ever did, I suppose...