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Sept. 13, 2001 Surveying the wreckage of Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941, Adm. William F. Halsey famously said, "Before we’re through with ’em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell." It was an understandable reaction, widely shared at the time. After the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, it is only natural that Americans feel something similar. In the end, though, what will emerge from the grief and wreckage of Tuesday’s tragedy, will transcend vengeance. Faced with such an affront, the American people will react as they ultimately have to every like challenge — with courage, determination and, above all, with resilience. The assassins responsible for this attack made the same mistake the Japanese warlords made 60 years ago: They underestimated Americans. Thinking us fat, weak, lazy and, no doubt, corrupt, they imagined that we can be cowed by their determination and willingness to kill. They should look, however, at the totality of the U.S. victory over the criminals who caused World War II. The response of the American people to Pearl Harbor was not, as Halsey had predicted, to kill all the Japanese, even though by 1945 the power to do just that was almost within their reach. The United States’ ultimate victory came not because Americans killed more efficiently but because they were determined instead to root out and eliminate the evil that was their real enemy. And, that they did by any means necessary. At first that meant guns and bombs. Later, though, the effort continued with magnanimity, economic aid and no small measure of forgiveness. It was an onslaught no would-be conqueror could withstand. Yes, Americans beat the Japanese in battle, but for all their samurai arrogance, the warlords could have survived that. What their kind could not take was to have their country rebuilt along western, democratic values. The criminals who ordered Tuesday’s attack lashed out at what they saw as the symbols of American power — just as Japan’s military did at Pearl Harbor. What they clearly do not fathom, however, is that America’s real strength is its people. Whether Tuesday’s attack is eventually seen as a continuation of an ongoing fight or the opening shots of a new war, Americans will not acquiesce to a world in which the rules are set by terrorists and killers. The American people, their dreams and ideals, will survive. The
twisted aspirations of their attackers, however, are doomed. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
