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 apitol
Hill this morning seemed a little like London during the bombings.
There was confusion, with strangers stopping each other on the streets
to trade information — a precious commodity in short supply
as word of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington began
to come in. Cell phones were everywhere, but few of them seemed
to work. The lines at pay phones were long. People streamed eastward
on the sidewalks, away from the closed office buildings and presumably
headed for home — or at least to the homes of friends. Rumors
were everywhere: Was there a fire in the Capitol Building? A car
bomb outside the State Department? Was it safe to cross a bridge
into Virginia?
There was fear, as pedestrians jumped at the sound of an explosion
from across the river. The buzz of a plane overhead made people
crouch — as if ducking would help. Friend or foe? It was the
sort of question nobody in America has had to ask — until now.
There was also calm. Partly this calm was from the comforting presence
of police directing traffic — a sign of order in the midst
of what easily might have been chaos. Partly it was the raw impact
of an event whose meaning won't hit home for some time. How quickly
will Americans realize that the crimes committed today were not
just acts of terrorism but acts of war?
Someone has declared war on us. Why? There will be those who are
tempted to think that we could live in peace if only we did less
to cause offense: if we withdrew our support from Israel, our troops
from Saudi Arabia, our sanctions on Iraq. If we withdrew from the
costs of empire and the burdens of leadership.
But this is an illusion. It is not the case that the natural disposition
of all human beings, absent provocation, is friendliness to the
United States. We have enemies — enemies who hate the fact
and the character of our power, not just the uses to which it is
put. We cannot choose to stop being the most powerful country in
the world, or to stop standing for freedom and democracy. No amount
of pre-emptive capitulation to our enemies' demands — which
is what, after all, a no-offense strategy would amount to —
would ever be enough.
All that we can do is to fight back. And pray.
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