[iwar] [fc:This-Is-War-And-We'll-Win-It,-Say-Pentagon-Staff]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-12 15:25:03
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 15:25:03 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:This-Is-War-And-We'll-Win-It,-Say-Pentagon-Staff]
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London Daily Telegraph
September 12, 2001
This Is War And We'll Win It, Say Pentagon Staff
By Ben Fenton in Washington
As he surveyed the devastation at the Pentagon, America's military
headquarters, the navy officer could not control his rage. "Somebody's
nation, somebody's cause, somebody's damn religion has just declared war on
us and we are the greatest war-fighting machine the world has ever seen," he
said, covering his name badge.
"The cause espoused by whoever did this is now, officially, a lost cause.
You can take that to the bank." Around him, America's military middle
management nodded their heads. 
The suicide air attack on the Pentagon was the first time terrorism had
reached the heart of Washington, and its citizens responded by heading for
the hills.
The city streets clogged as workers streamed out in every direction, except
towards the smoke-billowing Pentagon on the west side of the Potomac river.
Roads on the opposite bank were jammed solid, turning the broad avenues and
six-lane streets into elongated car parks.
At first, there were fears that death was coming from the skies into the
heart of the city but it soon became clear that only the Pentagon had been
hit.
The White House, evacuated and locked down by its nervous-looking security
forces, was not a target and the Capitol was safe. But there were still
anxious glances at the sky, especially while rumours spread that not all of
the hijacked airliners had been accounted for.
For hours, nobody knew just how bad the catastrophe had been in the
Pentagon, where the crashed jet devastated the US Army's planning
department. Soldiers, sailors and airmen mingled with civilian employees in
one of the huge car parks.
Stretchers were wheeled from the building's small hospital as it was
evacuated. Behind the shelter of a low wall next to a small park on the
Potomac, children from one of the Pentagon's creches cowered with their
nurses.
An air force major with razor-sharp creases in his trousers squatted down in
front of them and tried to engage them in a game of Simon Says. But every 10
seconds or so one of the children burst into tears.
Overhead, an F-16 jet circled low round the building. A few moments later, a
man with a megaphone ran down the line of uniformed workers yelling:
"There's another plane on the way in. The F-16 is here to shoot it down. You
cannot get far enough away from the Pentagon. Keep moving."
There was a palpable air of shock among the servicemen and women. These were
the people who manage America's mammoth armed forces. But they had been made
to look helpless and vulnerable by the actions of a few committed
terrorists.
"There was no warning, even after the World Trade Centre was hit," Col
Gregory Walter said. "We heard a huge blast, felt the building shake and
just got the hell out."
A staff sergeant of the US Marines, who asked not to be named, said: "This
is just the worst feeling I have ever had. I want to hit back, but with
these scum, you never know where to hit. I want to nuke 'em all. Whoever
they are. Nuke 'em. Nuke 'em."
As a large section of the Pentagon burned, rumours spread that other
explosions had hit the city. A car bomb had hit the State Department. Not
true. A plane had crashed into the Capitol building. Wrong. A second plane
was on its way to take out the White House. Another false alarm.
All federal buildings in Washington were evacuated, all the city's museums
and public buildings closed, and most commercial office buildings were
emptied.
Normally at mid-morning in the second week of September the streets of the
capital are fairly quiet, the tourists mostly gone home, the wheels of
government beginning to turn again.
Suddenly, that normality was gone. The roads were thronged with office
workers trying to work out how to get home, but there was an eerie quiet,
broken occasionally by the howl of sirens.
People gathered around radios and watched televisions in shop windows. Many
abandoned their cars at the roadside. Thousands of people walked, streaming
out of the central area on the usually deserted footbridges across the
Potomac.
Todd, a worker at the Department of Commerce, was giving his opinion to
anyone who would listen. He said: "I don't know who did this, but they just
checked into the Hotel Damnation."

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