[iwar] [fc:End-Of-Illusion]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-12 15:40:28
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Air-Force-Wires-Weapons-To-Web]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Warning-&-Indicators---Cyber-Conflict]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Message-Id: <200109122240.PAA05453@big.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:40:28 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iwar] [fc:End-Of-Illusion]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Washington Post
September 12, 2001
End Of Illusion
By Robert J. Samuelson
What was destroyed yesterday was not just the World Trade Center and part of
the Pentagon but also Americans' serenity and sense of security. Watching
the horror on television, anyone will find it hard to go about everyday
routines without being haunted by the fear that something awful could happen
at any time and in almost any place. This was, in a symbolic and
psychological sense, the end of the 1990s. Ever since the close of the Cold
War, Americans have lived in an almost dreamlike condition, gloating over
our global triumph, relishing our role as the world's "sole surviving
superpower," savoring an ever-improving prosperity and feeling insulated
from the rest of the world's hatreds, feuds and conflicts.
It will no longer be possible to maintain the illusion of invulnerability,
and the change in attitudes and assumptions will have profound effects --
just what, no one can possibly yet say -- on our politics, foreign policy
and our concept of who we are as a people. For much of the past decade,
Americans have heard and read warnings about the dangers of terrorism and
about how many global threats are no longer easily deterred by conventional
military might. But these cautions have always had a seductively abstract
quality. When we watched the rest of the world's ethnic, religious and
national struggles disintegrate into unending violence -- in the Balkans,
the Middle East and Africa -- we consoled ourselves with how far away and
un-American they were. Our minds may have told us how easily comparable
threats might travel to New York, Washington, Dallas or Los Angeles. But in
our hearts, we felt removed and protected.
No one can understate yesterday's human tragedy, even though we do not yet
know its full dimensions. Still, the larger and more enduring story may be
what we all felt and saw on TV. As a young teenager in the early 1960s, I
watched President Kennedy's television address when he announced to the
country that the Soviet Union was placing missiles in Cuba, that the United
States would not accept this and that American warships were proceeding to
establish a blockade around Cuba. Even now, the memories remain vivid. I was
frightened. The world seemed to be edging toward a nuclear confrontation
that might incinerate us all. I felt frightened again yesterday, and my
teenage children -- as they watch these horrors on television and try to
contemplate their meaning -- will feel frightened. They will not know what
to think; but they will know how to feel.
The scenes exceeded the worst of Hollywood's disaster movies. My office is
on the 12th floor of a building a block and a half from the White House,
with a balcony looking west. From it, we could see immense black clouds of
smoke billowing up from the Pentagon. What happened there was nothing
compared with New York. Shortly before 10 a.m., a cousin e-mailed to see
whether I was okay. I asked whether his parents and brother -- who live in
Manhattan -- were far away from the World Trade Center. They were. Then our
building was ordered evacuated. Police had cordoned off the street below; a
fire engine sat at one end. Beyond the police lines, people milled about,
confused. Traffic was gridlocked. More people waited for the bus than I had
ever seen before. Downtown was closing.
What Americans now grasp is that this could happen to any of us in any city
-- in offices, shopping malls, arenas or airports. It may not; but it could.
The fear has been implanted, and it won't soon disappear. We don't know who
organized yesterday's attacks, but the reasonable presumption is that we
were targeted by international terrorists. We know (or should know) that we
have many vulnerabilities: The systems that sustain the daily business of
America -- from the air system to telephone and computer networks -- are
open to attack and sabotage. The fabric of everyday life now seems far more
fragile.
How we respond to this new fear will take our measure as a people. We need
to respect it without being ruled by it. Throughout our history, Americans
have had a peculiar mixture of feelings toward foreigners -- a combination
of suspicion, superiority, isolationism and interventionism. We cannot wall
ourselves off from the rest of the world, but somehow we must defend
ourselves against it. We need to take reasonable precautions without
retreating into national paranoia. There is no obvious formula for achieving
this necessary balance, and the America that pursues it has tragically lost
much of the innocence and illusion of the past decade.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Secure all your Web servers now: Get your FREE Guide and learn to: DEPLOY THE LATEST ENCRYPTION,
DELIVER TRANSPARENT PROTECTION, and More!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/k0k.gC/nT7CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Air-Force-Wires-Weapons-To-Web]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Warning-&-Indicators---Cyber-Conflict]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:42 PDT