Guy Wheatley
The Texarkana Gazette
I've heard people refer to the attack on the World Trade Center as a
cowardly act and the perpetrators as cowards. Others answer saying
that these misguided men were willing to give up their lives for something
they believed in and you can't call them cowards. My response to that is
an unprintable phrase, for which I will substitute "balderdash." I unequivocally
call them cowards. There is a universe of difference between the motivation
of a brave man facing danger and a coward committing suicide.
Shortly before 10:00 a.m. on Sept. 11, these philosophies came face
to face on United Flight 93. The differences are startling.
Let's take a look at the hijackers. They were running away from a world
they didn't have the courage to live in. Their actions were as selfish
as they were ignorant. They elected to spend their time on earth skulking
in the shadows letting their envy of those with the courage to live life
turn to hate. They gave up nothing leaving this world. Lacking the strength
of character to establish their own morality, they relinquished their personal
sovereignty to ignorant, evil men. They were promised personal rewards
in the next life and were willing to spread death and misery to thousands
of others to get it. Theirs was an act of spite, not courage.
Osama bin Laden is almost undoubtedly the agent behind the attacks.
Shortly after coming to power, the hard-line Taliban government assured
the world that they would eliminate terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.
Despite these assurances, they harbor Osama bin Laden. The Taliban has
excelled itself in demonstrating a lack of moral backbone. One of the first
moves these "brave" warriors made was to brutalize their women, forcing
them to wear veils and refusing to allow them to attend school or work.
They stopped all education other than extremist indoctrination and cut
off all contact with the outside world. You can be sent to prison in Afghanistan
for owning a television. The decisions they've made and the actions they've
taken have created a nation of starving people living in stone-age conditions.
The people of Afghanistan are not supporters of the Taliban. They are the
first victims. The Taliban has brutalized all within their reach that dare
to see and acknowledge the truth. But they don't have the courage to face
the consequences of their actions. Instead, they point their envious fingers
at America and try to lay the blame on us. The purveyors, of this perversion
of Islam, would have the world believe America's wealth derives from the
suffering of the righteous.
The perpetrators of this mindless destruction and their sponsors lack
the courage to take credit for their actions. They have crawled from their
holes in the ground, proclaiming America's weakness. They boast of great
victories to come and fantasize about a cowering America, paralyzed into
inaction. It is not America's weakness they are counting on. It is America's
strength of character. They know that we have the military might to reduce
the hills of Afghanistan to an uninhabitable, glowing, radioactive wasteland.
But they know that America will not sacrifice the innocent, in a mindless
thirst for vengeance. So, they slither back into the nooks and crannies
of the Afghan hills using the innocent Muslims of their own country as
human shields.
America, by her very existence, repudiates the warped values the zealots
teach. Our measured responses to past atrocities demonstrate our determination
to react appropriately, but not over react. Perhaps our greatest weakness
is the inability to comprehend the magnitude of the evil we face. Those
who celebrate the murders of September 11 will learn, to their great sorrow,
that we more fully understand the score.
Also on flight 93 was another way of life, the American way of life.
It is the way of life that produced people like Todd Beamer, Jeremy
Glick, Tom Burnett, Mark Bingham, and others whose names we don't yet know.
They weren't following the demented ravings of a fanatical mad man. They
individually and freely chose their course. They took a vote and decided
to act. We've seen photographs of some of these heroes in happier times.
The pictures document people living life to the fullest, surrounded by
loving families. They had much to live for. They didn't leave this world
willingly. They left it bravely, defending others. They are America.
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