Tuesday, 11 September 2001 : "Will"

Just at the moment when American political debate had reached a nadir of frivolousness, with wrangling about nonexistent "lockboxes" and the like, the nation's decade-long holiday from history came to a shattering end. After about a half-century of war and Cold War, Americans came to feel, understandably, that the world was too much with them, and they turned away from it. What happened Tuesday morning, and can happen again, underscored the abnormality of the decade.

At times like this, confused thought breeds confused action...

Terrorism acquires its power from the special horror of its randomness, and from the magnification of it by modern media, which make the perpetrators seem the one thing they are not -- powerful. Terrorism is the tactic of the weak.