Chicago Tribune | Tribune editorial: The = vulnerabilities we cherish

Tribune editorial: The = vulnerabilities we=20 cherish

Also available
3Dline=20

=20 E-mail=20 this story

=20 Printer-friendly=20 format

Published September 12, 2001

Woven through this country's history is a=20 psychic demon we rarely acknowledge.

Our crises are not = just of the=20 purely external sort, the oncoming threats that prompt our = fight-or-flight=20 responses. Our most recurrent crisis comes from deep within us: We = have=20 chosen to be vulnerable. Boast as we do about living in a free = society, we=20 often are tragically reminded--as we are in the wake of Tuesday's=20 cataclysm--of a free society's costs.

Nowhere are we more=20 exposed than in the great cities of this land. We have laced them = with=20 mighty arteries--water lines, communications cables, electrical = wires,=20 mass transit routes--and we have built tall structures to hold = their=20 workers by the thousands.

And then, come a Tuesday in = September, we=20 realize that for all our progress, all our technology, our cities = are=20 infinitely more vulnerable to attack than were the coarse, walled = cities=20 of medieval Europe. "The very advances that enhance our lives = provide new=20 routes of access for those who want to harm us," says University = of=20 Wisconsin historian Stan K. Schultz. "Every modern=20 technology--architecture, flight, airport security--holds within = it the=20 capacity to force us two steps back."

The anger, grief and = resolve=20 that suffuse Americans today have, in truth, washed over our = forebears for=20 centuries. Yes, this is a country that has long felt vulnerable. = But this=20 also is a country that, more than many others, has found a way to = resolve=20 those emotions without surrendering its essential = freedoms.

Time=20 and again, our relative newness as a nation has fed our insecurity = and=20 threatened our will to stand strong.

As early as the 1670s, = Puritan=20 preachers in New England colonies delivered jeremiads against the = devotion=20 of newly arrived Americans to the worldly goods that ships were = delivering=20 to Boston; the preachers feared that possessions from exotic ports = would=20 divert the newcomers from building a nation.

A century = later, the=20 grip of a British king and his parliamentarians pushed Americans = into a=20 revolution that many expected their little country not to survive. = Before=20 the War of 1812, so-called Warhawks in present-day Illinois, Ohio, = Michigan and Kentucky argued that the United States would be = choked,=20 perhaps to death, if it did not clear the frontier of English and = French=20 forts.

In the late 1800s, widespread alarm that we were a = 10th-rate=20 seapower--even Brazil was stronger--prompted the building of what = became=20 the mightiest navy on Earth. The 1915 sinking of the Lusitania by = a=20 torpedo attack from a German submarine helped nudge us into World = War I,=20 much as the bombing of Pearl Harbor tugged us into its numerical=20 successor. Later, another threat from overseas--communism--drove a = Cold=20 War that felt remarkably warm when the Soviets deployed nuclear = missiles=20 to Cuba.

Each of these threats, some exaggerated but many = just as=20 real as Tuesday's calculated assault, held the power to take = America's=20 soul.

That did not happen. Our most lasting wound--from = slavery,=20 the Civil War and long-lasting tentacles of racial tension--was=20 self-inflicted.

There is a profound reason why this nation = has=20 survived. It dates to those revolutionary times, specifically to a = phrase=20 that was ceaselessly repeated for more than a century. In moments = of=20 crisis, presidents and other politicians spoke of "this fragile = experiment=20 in democracy."

What went unspoken in each of these moments = of=20 crisis was less reverent but more blunt: We must sacrifice = together or we=20 will succumb together. Not just stick together, but sacrifice = together.=20 That thought is not unique to the United States. But it has = resonated here=20 more intensely than in many other lands.

It has meant = different=20 things at different times. During World War II, for example, the = rationing=20 of gasoline, rubber and sugar wasn't solely to help the war = effort. The=20 ethos of the day demanded that America do more than send its = soldiers and=20 hardware to war, and support them with needed commodities. The = companion=20 motive for rationing goods, often overlooked in today's = retellings, was to=20 steel this nation's spine against further vulnerabilities it = couldn't=20 foresee.

What gets sacrificed this time isn't yet clear. = Perhaps it=20 will be the naive but common assumption that we live in a world = bounded by=20 two oceans and our own, often selfish concerns. Perhaps it will be = the=20 Balkanization of Americans into groups that have had the luxury of = pursuing their own agendas for lack of an overarching American=20 agenda.

But in wreaking their terrible havoc, Tuesday's=20 perpetrators have awakened something within millions of = us.

In an=20 age of fast this and fast that, they have helped us remember that = we can=20 feel something far deeper than fleeting surprise. They have taught = us anew=20 that we must sacrifice together or we will succumb = together.

They=20 have reminded us that we are vulnerable--and that we cherish our=20 vulnerabilities above all else.

- - -

So, today, we = will=20 arise. Shopkeepers will turn the locks and open for business. = Children=20 will walk to school. Farmers will return to the preparations for = harvest.=20 In small towns and big towns people will regain the energy and = ingenuity=20 and resolve of the freest nation on Earth.

Terrorists have=20 assaulted the symbols of America's economic and military might. = They have=20 taken countless lives.

But like the others who challenged = this=20 country, they will not shake America's spirit.

These will = not be=20 easy days. Images of buildings billowing smoke will give way to = stories of=20 thousands of personal tragedies. There will be sorrow and rage. We = will=20 hear tales of profound heroism. We will understand public spirit = in a way=20 that may have slipped our nation's consciousness in recent=20 years.

Our sense of sanctuary and isolation will be tested. = There=20 will be restless moments as we attempt to fully comprehend the = enormity of=20 what has happened. We can build on these sober moments. Give = blood.=20 Volunteer our time. Respond to calls for financial relief. We = should not=20 stand still.

Within days our state of siege will loosen. = Our=20 routines will return. Some of our customs inevitably will change. = Expect=20 to see heightened security in train stations, government offices,=20 financial institutions, court systems, national monuments--any = place where=20 people can gather. Any place that symbolizes U.S. power and=20 prestige.

How dramatically are we willing to curtail our = liberties=20 to protect our security? It has been assumed, for example, that = American=20 citizens would never tolerate the delays and inconvenience = required to=20 make air travel secure. We are about to find out.

- - = -

We=20 are, as well, about to find out how America responds, for the = first time=20 in 60 years, to an act of war on its own soil.

This nation = has the=20 military power to devastate any organization or any state that was = involved in this terrorism. It will not be constrained by the = reach and=20 power of its weaponry. It will be constrained by notions of = national=20 sovereignty and international law.

In recent years, many = Americans=20 have grown impatient with this nation's response to = terrorism.

The=20 U.S. did not retaliate for the deadly attack on the U.S. marine = barracks=20 in Beirut in 1983, which took the lives of 241 Marines and = sailors. It did=20 not retaliate for the assault on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in = 1996,=20 which killed 19 U.S. airmen and wounded more than 250 others. In = each=20 case, no definitive proof of responsibility was = discovered.

America=20 did seek and deliver a measure of justice for the 1993 bombing of = the=20 World Trade Center. Following a scrupulously fair trial, the = terrorist=20 group's ringleader, the blind Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar = Abdel-Rahman, was=20 sentenced to life in prison without parole and some of his = followers=20 received prison terms. Yet those sentences did not serve as a = deterrent to=20 terrorism. Indeed, they may have served as a = provocation.

That=20 impatience will amplify to outrage as the death toll from = Tuesday's=20 violence rises.

As a nation, we've made our choices. We = accept=20 vulnerability as a price of freedom. We prize justice above=20 vengeance.

But justice demands punishment commensurate to = the=20 crime. The terrorists who orchestrated these acts have blood on = their=20 hands. Soon enough, it may be their own.


September 15, 2001