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 he
first great war of the 21st Century began September 11, seemingly
out of the blue. The United States is a target because we are powerful,
rich, and good. We are resented for our power, envied for our wealth,
and hated for our liberty.
Few wars begin
like their predecessors. The wars of the last century opened with
thrusts into Belgium or Poland, a surprise attack on battleships,
a lurch in Kuwait, a steadily accreting campaign of jungle murder.
This war began with four hijacked airplanes targeted at the Pentagon,
Camp David, and the two World Trade Towers.
No one should
think of this as terrorism, which is the effort to spread death
and dismay among civilian populations. Much death and grief ensued,
but the targets were precisely picked to incarnate American power,
democracy, and wealth. The September Massacres were a rational attempt
to thwart the will and depress the spirits of the United States.
Our enemies
have proximate motives, as political and military actors always
do. But let no one imagine that any American policy or lack of it,
or any change in our ethnic or religious makeup, could have insulated
us from such a strike. The United States is hated because we are,
indeed, powerful, rich, and good. Like the temples of Rome sacked
by the barbarians, or the Greenwich Observatory that was the target
of anarchists in Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent, our national headquarters
and totems excite the fear and wrath of those in the world who feel
themselves shortchanged. For this historical moment, anyone who
has a quarrel with the status quo will find us, with varying degrees
of truth, somehow implicated in his discontents. Our exposure to
these emotions is an unavoidable badge of honor.
Because this
was an act of war, its agents must not be pursued by resolutions,
lawsuits, or all the other legalistic and diplomatic devices by
which we have tried to combat terrorists in the recent past. President
Bush's and Secretary of State Powell's early talk of "hunting
down" the perpetrators is misguided. These are not traffic
violators to be given a desk ticket at the night court of The Hague.
After the time it takes to guess the attackers' commanders, which
should not be long, those commanders, and their allies and patrons,
should be paved over. If our retaliatory strikes hit a few of the
world's warriors who happened not to be involved in this war, that
will be no great loss.
News reports
showed dancing in the streets of Middle Eastern cities, graphic
proof that our enemies are not restricted to cadres of ideologues
or leaders. Striking the war-making capacity of hostile nations
may involve clearing some of those streets. When that happens, we
should not shrink. Our European allies have, in many cases, battened
off deals with rogue states. They should be told that, if they continue
to do so, their assets in this country may be appropriated to repair
the damage done to Washington and New York City.
The vacation
that began with the end of the Cold War ended with the summer of
2001. All the twittering about lockboxes, tax cuts, and compassionate
this and that; all the chatter about world structures and emerging
mobocracies was the sound of locusts. The first duty of the state
is to protect the national security. Salus populi suprema lex. We
need our diplomats, not to attend conferences and solve the world's
problems, but to cut deals that are to our advantage and explain
the consequences of actions that are not; we need our military resources,
not to run elections and perform social work in the BedStuys and
Appalachias of the world, but to punish offenses and intimidate
enemies.
The September
Massacres would not, of course, have been stopped by missile defense.
They were not stopped by aircraft carriers. Does that mean we should
have none? No great power seems to have been actively involved,
but that does not mean that a great power might not threaten one
day to send four warheads somewhere. We must be prepared to meet
that threat, as we prepare to repel further attacks of this kind.
Such an operation was not the work of a handful of men; there had
to be coordination, planning, support. Our intelligence was woefully
lacking; our domestic defense capabilities need to be addressed.
Grievous as
our losses have been, America has suffered worse in its history,
in both pride and blood. The enemy once occupied Washington and
burned the White House; until Vietnam, the greatest killers of Americans
were brother Americans in the Civil War. The systems and the character
that emerged from those torments will emerge from this. The world,
we have been taught, is always full of competing views. In the intellectual
pine barrens of the West, there are anarchist and neo-Communist
stirrings. Islam harbors a fundamentalist strain, a minority even
in the Middle East, a small minority worldwide. China is modernizing
the Asian road to despotism-a very old road; Confucius warned against
it. These options lead to poverty and tyranny. The United States,
for all its follies and sins, is the best the world has to offer.
We should therefore
be of good cheer. In the darkest early days of World War II Winston
Churchill told British diplomats on the European continent to light
their windows, to hold the usual functions, to conduct themselves
with confidence and spirit. No skulking in bunkers or military bases
for him, or for us. Schedule the rebuilding of our wasted icons.
Our fellow citizens are lost, but the steel and glass will come
back. When it does we will hang out a million flags.
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