From the WSJ Opinion Archives
OUTSIDE THE BOX
An Act of War
A surprise attack hits America. What's next?
The Soviets are gone, the Nazis are gone, and the Japanese militarists who attacked Pearl Harbor are gone. But evil is not gone.
The hijacked planes, collapsed World Trade Towers and smoldering Pentagon are powerful reminders that there is precious little safety in the supposed New World Order. Our country is still vulnerable to what commentators are now calling "a second Pearl Harbor," a surprise attack that devastates America.
The first thing to be understood about yesterday's carnage is that it was not an excusable, random act of protest. It was an intentional, rational and extraordinarily well-planned act of war directed by a foreign power against the United States.
Unlike Pearl Harbor, the identity of the perpetrators is not immediately obvious, no Tora! Tora! Tora! nor planes with the rising sun on their wings. But it is more than likely that the terrorist attack was carried out by the very same foreign power that blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, attacked the very same World Trade Center in 1993, and blew a huge hole in the USS Cole in Yemen last year.
The war analogy is apt. "New York City has been under attack," Gov. George Pataki. The intense television images of smoking buildings, injured people and the horrific toppling of the two towers--live for all of us to see--are images of war. And the casualties of Tuesday's attack will likely far exceed those suffered in the attack on Pearl Harbor, which killed 2,348, including 68 civilians.
The first order of business for the Bush administration is to find out who did it and retaliate quickly and forcefully. Some may urge tolerance and forbearance, for there are understandable grievances, etc, etc. But for an act of war, a substantive--as opposed to symbolic--military action is the appropriate response.
The second question is how the terrorists could have organized such a massive operation and yet evaded detection. The simultaneous hijacking of at least four commercial aircraft, probably requiring two dozen skilled people, was planned and successfully executed, no small task in and of itself. Three of them crashed into their intended targets. So where were the CIA and the FBI? Could intelligence organizations with budgets of tens of billions of dollars really have missed the whole thing?
To avoid such catastrophes in the future, the CIA is going to have to get down and dirty in the intelligence business. Congressional criticism of the agency over the years apparently has turned it into too nice an organization to prevent attacks like Tuesday's.
The World Trade Center is probably doomed. The towers were rebuilt after the last bombing, but it does not seem likely they will be again. World trade may also suffer a setback, for while the terrorist acts were directed at a free and successful America they may fuel the antitrade, antimarket agenda and give rise to protectionist sentiment at home and abroad. That must not be allowed to happen.
Most important, what will become of the free and open society in which all of us have lived and worked? The initial decisions to evacuate buildings, close bridges and tunnels, ground all commercial aircraft and even stop voting in New York's primary elections were the right responses. But when the smoke clears, will we return to the way we have always lived? Aircraft travel will be more difficult for years to come; ever more intrusive airport security will be a burdensome but necessary pain in the neck. But will civil liberties be limited as in time of war? Some sort of national identity card required? Borders closed? Access to large events from the World Series to Disneyland controlled by the government?
Yesterday's events were brutal, but our society must remain open, especially when the temptation to limit liberties in the name of security will be strong.
I write just hours after the terrorist acts began, so it is too soon to know who perpetrated them, why, and even whether they are over. The U.S. military remains on its highest alert, Navy ships patrol the East Coast, and major cities have declared states of emergency.
Evil casts a long shadow. For the first time in nearly six decades--since Dec. 7, 1941--America has been grievously wounded. Yesterday's violence brought fear and uncertainty home to the people of America. "It can't happen here" no longer holds, and that will profoundly affect our future.
Mr. du Pont, a former governor of Delaware, is policy chairman of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis. His column appears Wednesdays.
