From the publisher/By Arnold G. York
The bombs are falling on Afghanistan and I feel better. I know that’s a terrible thing to say, but for me, as I suspect for many of you, this attack on the World Trade Center has produced a ride on an emotional roller coaster.
I can’t stop it, I can’t get off and it feels like everything that happens out there, over which I have absolutely no control, impacts me personally.
I’ve tried all the standard cures; Prozac, alcohol, eating every fattening food known to man, talking it to death, writing about it and still it’s there, like a great big weight sitting on my chest and I can’t get rid of it.
I read the papers in the morning; check the online news sites during the day and watch TV news at night. Everything I see makes me feel worse. It’s hard to sleep at night. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up not feeling rested.
Why is this so unsettling? People live through wars and bombings without this angst. What’s so different?
What’s different is the rules all seem so uncertain. I’m not sure what good and evil mean in the context of this conflict. I can’t figure out if we’re at war or not at war. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t seem to figure it out or make myself feel better. So rather than trying to figure it out, I think about the only thing we can do as citizens is to develop a set of rules of survival, which hopefully will carry us through this. I’ve based a set on my perception that this is a marathon and not a sprint, and to win we have to be standing at the finish line.
Rule No. 1– We cannot allow the terrorists to attack us.
They can hate us and malign us, picket and protest, burn us in effigy, run riot in our streets, threaten and bluff, curse us to the heavens, but never, never, never can they attack us.
Rule No. 2 — If they do, we will annihilate them.
We’ll do it wherever they hide, and whatever country they are in–no matter who riots, protests or threatens us, or whatever the economic consequences are, or how many resolutions are introduced at the United Nations.
Rule No. 3 — Anybody who aids and abets our enemy is also our enemy.
So either help us or get the hell out of our way because we’re going to do what we have to do to protect ourselves whether you like it or not.
Rule No. 4 — Stop caring about what the world thinks about us.
It doesn’t matter. Whatever we do or don’t do impacts somebody or some country in this world. Sometimes we can do something about it, more often than not, we can’t. If some shopkeeper in Afghanistan tells CNN how evil we are and how much he hates us, shrug it off or their hatred will devour us.
Rule No. 5 — Make it very clear that we are prepared to use force, and mean it.
Let’s not delude ourselves about what that means. It means we are sending our men and women off on missions that can kill them. We are going to see TV footage of dead Americans and body bags coming back. Despite all the rhetoric about smart weapons and minimizing collateral damage, the reality is war kills people, combatants and innocents, and if we are to remain strong we have to accept that. Sometimes in using force, we’re going to be the heavy. We’re going to aim for the missile site and instead hit the hospital. It’s unavoidable. War is a nasty business.
Rule No. 6 — Let’s stop beating ourselves up.
We didn’t pick this war and we didn’t pick this battle. Up to the time the World Trade Center was attacked, we weren’t mad at anyone and we weren’t fighting with anyone. The terrorists chose this battlefield and they set the rules of engagement. They decided that every American is a combatant. They don’t accept the concept of innocents. We can’t walk off, we can’t hide, we can’t negotiate, we can’t make nice and buy them off. All we can do is stand and fight.
Rule No. 7 — Refuse to be a victim.
I know now that’s what has been eating away at me. I feel like a victim and powerless. It’s tearing me up and I suspect also many of you feel the same way. We owe no one, no nation, no religion, no belief an apology because we are the largest, strongest richest nation in the world.
Rule No. 8 — Accept that we’re all going to lose something in this war, but we simply don’t have a choice.
We are going to lose some privacy, freedom, free speech, and some ability to assemble, travel, visit and earn a living, because, the truth is, wartime rules will apply. But the war will ultimately end. Terrorists don’t bring down great nations. Even terrorists get older and tired and need a little personal peace or get killed. When that happens, we’ll return to peacetime rules.