At night I toss and turn watching my mind’s replay
of people jumping out of the WTC, a hundred stories up. I hold back tears at
every US flag flying at half-mast, at every sign of solidarity. I struggle to
talk, to smile, to hope. I’m explosive. My fury is the rumbling building; my
heart pumps jet fuel. My mind burns and tears at the walls of reality, and my
world crumbles. All that is left is a bent and smoldering fury and not a soul
upon which to direct it.
War. Our flag waves war. Red, war. White, war. Blue, war. I see
war in our faces. I hear war in our voices. It parades down streets, it
titles our resolve: New War. I have heard citizens call for war, my father
demand war, my country declare war. My humanity screams war! And then falters
without a guilty people, without a guilty country, without a guilty religion
upon which to wage it.
Yet I struggle to find an enemy; we all struggle to find an
enemy to rise against and crumble. I want to destroy their cause, their
existence. I want to rage. But I am left unaided to commune with my country,
the world -- humanity. We weep amidst rubble and smoke, death and fear. We
weep at the tragedy; we weep without justice.
Do we strike? Bomb Afghanistan, bomb the Taliban, bomb
countries that may have transgressed against us? There is our war! Do we not
have the greatest power in the world? Our might is legendary. Our power,
beyond challenge. Why should we entertain repose, even for a moment? Let us
strike first and then consider!
Why find the Terrorist who wielded destruction on America? Are
they all not to blame? Why wait? We know who they are; we know where they
are. So, let us bring the mighty hand of America upon their doubtful heads
and shatter them into a thousand pieces like so much sand in the wind.
But is that not what we should fear? From one hateful group, we
spawn a thousand. In one death a thousand stand furious, determined. Will not
their violence reap violence a thousand fold? And thus we will be forced to
fight them all, tens of thousands, and one by one a thousand born.
And should we believe that a single man could do so much? As if
terrorism sprouted from a single soul whose removal would allow tranquility’s
return? And if the Terrorist falls, is not a martyr made? How many will rise
in his place? How many doubtful followers will we convert into doubtless
enemies? All of them we will fight! Each wave, more fanatical, more driven,
and with less to lose.
We must react. Our people lay dead beneath the collapsed symbol
of our economy. Our military smolders in the heart of our capital. Our
markets collapse and the world shudders. We have been kicked while we were
down. The insult is be great; the temptation to rage ever greater.
We can snuff out the terrorists in their havens. We can destroy
whole continents, the world a hundred times over. And that is precisely what
it will take to rid the world of terrorism. The sorrow of their losses will
deliver despair and cull fanaticism. Are we not blood thirsty now for our
losses? Are we not ready to wage war for our brothers and sisters? Do you
think they will be any different?
What are we about to do? Why have we declared war against an
unknown enemy? Do we have drugs in the streets even after decades fought
against them? Was Vietnam not enough? As if trading sands for a jungle
changes the game. We have lost two buildings and countless lives; need we
erect a wall with countless names, again?
War’s price: innocence, family members, love, peace, economies.
What is the price of war fought solely by Americans at the cost of Americans
without clear objectives, with a faceless enemy? The future.
Let us act but act prudently, backed in each step by the
resolve of the world against the evils of terrorism. Let us walk hand in hand
with the UN. Let us hold our brothers and sisters not damn them to sandy
graves. We can rid the world of Terrorism but not with the lonesome, steeled
resolve of the United States. Only the full support of a world intolerant of
anarchy and terror will deliver us our goal: Liberty.
Regardless. I am an American, thus “Here is to America, may she always be
right. But right or wrong, here is to America!”
Best Wishes,
The American
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