It seems certain that the ghastly toll will exceed our losses 60 years ago at Pearl Harbor. We knew our enemy then. We do not now.
Yes, we must at some point retaliate when we have unmasked the terrorists, but what is more pressing is to protect ourselves against more such savage and cowardly attacks. We must, meanwhile, stand tall and go about our daily living without further disruption.
This tragedy raises hard questions:
– Why has our costly, sprawling intelligence apparatus failed so often and now once again? How do we correct such terrible failures?
– How can terrorists or anyone bent on evil penetrate our domestic airport security in four separate instances at roughly the same time? What more can be done to assure the safety of American planes and passengers?
– Why are we even considering a costly, impractical and possibly unworkable national missile defense when what we really need is immediate protection from such deadly assaults as these from hijacked planes, and from vehicles and boats carrying lethal explosives, as at Oklahoma City and the USS Cole?
This is assuredly no time for chest-thumping and political posturing but rather for a rational, measured, practical and mature response that will correct the deficiencies that allowed this horrendous attack to occur.
