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have been, we and our leaders emphatically agree, savagely thrust
into a new kind of war that we have no choice but to win. What it
will take to defeat the enemy remains a subject of intense analysis.
But it is certain that victory will not come quickly or easily or
costlessly.
Until recently,
with the rise in the 1990s of the bipartisan fantasy of a casualty-free
military campaign, it was assumed that wars would not only demand
from soldiers the last full measure of devotion but would demand
from civilian populations the discipline of sacrifice. That discipline
of sacrifice will be indispensable in the pursuit of victory over
an elusive, ruthless, and far-flung adversary. Summoning it will
test our leaders and us.
Since the morning
of that terrible September Tuesday, we have been frequently reminded
of the staggering fact that the loss of life caused by the four
hijacked passenger jetliners turned into massive manned missiles
already greatly exceeds the 2,400 lost in Japan's surprise attack
on the U.S. military installation at Pearl Harbor. Far less have
we been encouraged to remember that the war that the next day President
Roosevelt asked Congress to declare lasted six long years and dramatically
transformed the lives of virtually all Americans.
In his address
to the nation on September 11, twelve hours after the first jet
slammed into the northern tower at the World Trade Center, President
Bush delivered a plainspoken and unadorned speech. His rhetoric
did not soar and his rage did not run over. But he did invoke the
indomitable spirit of the American people:
A great people
has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorists attacks can
shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot
touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but
they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
And though
he made no mention of the sacrifice that this war would entail,
indeed though he did not use the term until the following morning,
he boldly defined the war he was committing the nation to wage:
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed
these acts and those who harbor them." Later, Secretary of
State Colin Powell elaborated on just how broadly "those who
harbor them" was intended: "Countries that harbor terrorists
are no different than terrorists."
By now the
president has declared Osama bin Laden the "prime suspect."
And the president has affirmed that the war against bin Laden's
international network of terrorism and the countries that harbor
al Qaeda's many cells will require "a broad and sustained"
military campaign, one that will be measured not in days and weeks
but in years. The success of this military campaign, as many have
pointed out, will depend in part on the president's ability to organize
a broad and sustained international coalition of countries. It will
also depend on the president's ability to organize a broad and sustained
domestic coalition of citizens who not only support but are willing
on behalf of a new kind of war to make old-fashioned sacrifice.
In his September
15 Saturday radio address, the president connected the loss the
country has sustained, the mission our military must now undertake,
and the sacrifice that will be asked of the American people:
Now we honor
those who died, and prepare to respond to these attacks on our
nation. I will not settle for a token act. Our response must be
sweeping, sustained, and effective. We have much do to, and much
to ask of the American people.
You will
be asked for your patience; for, the conflict will not be short.
You will be asked for resolve; for, the conflict will not be easy.
You will be asked for your strength, because the course to victory
may be long.
In assessing
our readiness, there is cause for confidence and cause for concern.
As indelible
as the images of devastation are the stories of valor: The passengers
on hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 who, learning from cell-phone
conversations with their loved ones of the decimation of the World
Trade Center Towers and the attack on the Pentagon, grasped the
dire situation and stormed the hijackers, likely averting heavy
loss of life in Washington but also quite probably causing their
plane to crash in western Pennsylvania; New York City firefighters
and police officers whose professionalism on the day that the towers
came crashing to the earth and every moment since has been inseparable
from heroism; and the thousands of volunteer rescue workers in New
York and Washington who, as the ashes were still smoldering, put
themselves in harms way to tend to the injured and to search and
search and search for signs of the living. All these extraordinary
acts and individuals testify to deep reservoirs of courage and decency
in the American people.
Yet remarkably
we under the age of 45 — Gen Y and Gen X and even the now graying
tail end of the Baby Boom — have never been required to sacrifice
on behalf of our nation. We have undergone tragedy in our private
lives and faced trade-offs in our professional lives, but never
has the country asked us to deny our families or neglect our careers,
to tighten our belts or to forgo personal security and comfort and
pleasure for the sake of the public good. And sacrifice there will
be in the war now underway, beginning with the recognition that
terrorists who unleashed on this country hideous death and destruction
before we declared war on them will not refrain from murderous assaults
after we unleash on them our military might.
We are children
of an unprecedented freedom and prosperity and peace. These blessings
have made it easy to forget that a country devoted to securing for
its citizens life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has its
prerequisites. And now we and our leaders have been put to the test.
Among the many demands that this war imposes on the president will
be calling us, with clarity, with conviction, and with eloquence
to our duty as American citizens. It is a test he dare not fail.
But our leaders cannot discharge our duties for us. We each face
a test that we dare not fail. It involves taking upon ourselves
the sacrifices necessary to maintain a free society.
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