Reflections on the attack on 9-11-01
By Isaac Morgan
9-17-01

On the morning of September 11, 2001 at about 9:30 AM I was sitting in my room eating a donut and listening to the radio, when the radio announced that the World Trade Center in New York City had been attacked. Although I heard the World Trade Center had been attacked, my mind could not comprehend what had happened. I stood in my room staring at the radio with an un-chewed bite of donut still in my mouth. My roommate, Wes, rushed into the room and said something along the lines of "You have to see what happened." I followed my roommate to my friend Kevin’s room where the TV was on. Some reporter was talking while a live picture of the twin towers on fire was being shown. As far as the reporter could tell, a plane had hit the first tower at around 9:00 AM. At first everyone thought it was an accident until a plane hit the second tower half an hour later. Now, the reporter said they were almost positive that it was a terrorist attack. My first thought was "No way this can’t be real, there is no way this is happening." Since I had to go to class I took a shower and went to class. I then went back to my room where Wes was watching TV, he told me that a plane had also crashed into the Pentagon, and another plane had crashed near Pittsburgh. I still had difficulty believing what had happened, it seemed like something from a Tom Clancy novel. One of my first thoughts after learning this latest news was that we (the U.S.) had to find out who had attacked us and make them pay.

It is hard for me to believe that the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world, could be devastated by an attack mounted by a handful of men. On the news I heard several reporters comparing this attack to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I think this comparison is not accurate. The attack at Pearl Harbor was devastating; the Japanese forces killed 3,000 American military personnel. However the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed more people and the dead are mainly civilians. Pearl Harbor was a military base and was attacked by military forces of the Empire of Japan. Since a country attacked America at Pearl Harbor, we had a target to strike back at and we did. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle led B-17 bombers launched from aircraft carriers in a raid against Tokyo. Presumably a terrorist group and not a country attacked the World Trade Center, America has no clear target to retaliate against. It is much harder to launch an attack against a terrorist group than a country. America has been trying to kill Osama Bin Laden for years and has had no luck. I think President Bush needs to find a target to strike back at as soon as possible. Unless we immediately retaliate America will look weak and unable to defend itself. Other terrorist groups will be encouraged and more attacks on America could follow. American forces should strike against known terrorist groups even if they are not responsible for the World Trade Center attack. In the meantime, American intelligence agencies need to find out who was responsible for the attack, so America can punish them. I have also heard fatuous reporters declaring the attack on 9-11-01 and the Holocaust as similar. In my mind the only similarity between the attack on the World Trade Center and the Holocaust are that both were caused by hate. The Holocaust was caused by the Nazis hatred of the Jews. The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks were caused by someone’s hatred of America.