When I heard on the news this morning that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, I saw in my mind’s eye a small, private aircraft whose pilot had suffered a heart attack or maybe fallen asleep. When I heard that a second aircraft had hit the towers, I said to my wife, “We’re under attack.”
Until today, we’ve treated airline hijackings as hostage situations. I suspect that all future hijackings will be treated as terrorist attacks. An airliner is no longer just a conveyance; it’s a flying bomb — a weapon.
The word is that the terrorists on one aircraft were armed with only knives (per a passenger with cell phone). I haven’t heard about the others. It is distressing that they were apparently able to hijack four out of four targeted aircraft. I suspect that the hijackers gained control by simply threatening passengers and crew. Somewhere theres a policy that says, “Don’t endanger passengers or crew; cooperate.” This is our (the USA’s) Achilles heal. I mean, even at Columbine H.S., the SWAT team was still cowering outside the school a full hour after the terrorists had already killed themselves, lest anyone get hurt.
And the terrorists had a 75% success rate at hitting their targets with the aircraft. Surely Air Traffic Control had a good idea that something was very, very wrong for quite a long time before the first of the crashes.
I’d like to see the FAA require “hardening” of airliner cockpits such that no one can break in without downing the aircraft. To eliminate terrorists gaining cockpit access via duress, we also need a policy that says we do not open a cockpit door to anyone regardless of how many passengers/hostages are threatened or killed. The potential damage if terrorists are admitted is obviously too great to permit access. This policy would have to come from the Feds because any airline that instituted such without it being required, would be seen as callous — not unlike what I must seem right now.
We will learn all the wrong lessons from this. Today, I fear, marks a turning point. Look for every domestic law enforcement agency, especially the feds, to come forward with their Wish List of Big Brother proposals and try to take advantage of this tragedy to gain more power over your lives. Look for approval of more infrastructure needed to operate a Police State.
Most national tragedies are followed by an orgy of frenzied legislation. All manner of liberty-infringing measures will be proposed and (largely) approved by a Congress that wants to be seen as “doing something” about the terrorist problem.
As I write this, bombs or missiles are falling on Kabul, Afghanistan. I’ve heard no official word regarding the source. If this attack originated from American forces, I sure hope that we have compelling evidence that we have the right people targeted for retribution.
One bit of analysis you won’t be hearing on the TV is this: Bill Clinton is largely to blame for this attack. Not only did he severely cut funding for human intelligence operations (spies), it was Clinton who bombed a baby formula factory — saying it manufactured chemical weapons — in order to get the Lewinsky story off the front page. You can’t do that sort of thing and not expect repercussions. These are William Jefferson Clinton’s chickens coming home to roost.
Today is not simply a tragedy but rather the beginning of a much larger one.