After the attack on the United States this week, like many writers I scrapped the column I had prepared on another subject. Not being an expert on foreign policy or on things military, I instead followed the counsel of Proverbs 1:5 to “hear … and increase learning.”
The most common thing I heard was the word “war.” USA Today’s front page the next morning screamed “An Act of War.” Political leaders across the spectrum immediately called it just that, an act of war. Not a bombing, or even a terrorist attack, but an act of war. They may have taken that cue from the military going quickly to its highest “Delta” state of readiness, the same one as in wartime. President Bush did not use the same language in his speech that night, referring instead to “deadly terrorist acts,” “despicable acts of terror,” and “acts of mass murder.”
The label will determine the nature and course of the response. What we call something drives how we think about it and helps determine how we act on it. My dad often referred to it as a “frame of reference.” The frame of reference here should be war.
We should not waste time psychoanalyzing the psychotically evil monster behind this act of war, as former New York Governor Mario Cuomo suggested. We should not bother with illegitimate international tribunals, be directed by countries these madmen chose not to attack or be distracted by Muslims who don’t want to be typecast. Don’t kill innocent people and you won’t be thought of as a killer. We should act like this is war.
That might mean repealing the executive order provisions that prohibit assassinating this country’s enemies. If this is war, President Bush can immediately issue a new executive order repealing section 5(g) of EO 11905, section 2-305 of EO 12036, and section 2.11 of EO 12333. Or Congress could immediately take up H.R.19, the “Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001,” sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., that would nullify this assassination ban. If this is really war, that is.
This is worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It’s actually far worse. That was wartime around the globe – this was just a Tuesday in New York. That was an attack on a military target – this was an attack on an office building loaded with civilians. The kamikazes in WWII at least flew their own planes alone to die for their demented cause – here, the lunatics used American commercial aircraft full of passengers.
I also heard of people flocking to churches, falling to their knees in prayer and opening Bibles. Many no doubt had to ask directions to churches they had never visited, struggle for words praying to a God they had never approached and blow the dust off a Bible they had never read. Crises, especially those involving the unexpected death of ordinary people, often have that effect. I once saw a t-shirt that read: “In the event of a nuclear attack, the ban on school prayer will be lifted.”
Some so-called “religious” organizations were of no help at all. The National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., for example, issued a statement calling on people “to manifest the best of our national spirit. At such a time as this, we must hold together.” How pathetically bankrupt. Forgive me, but Osama bin Laden himself could have issued that statement.
Others, however, looked to the Holy Spirit instead of the national spirit. In his speech to the nation that night, President Bush quoted from verse four of Psalm 23: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” In his statement, evangelist Dr. Billy Graham quoted from verse 10 of Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Those passages apply to the here-and-now. I found another that might offer guidance to America’s leaders in the days ahead. Each night in September, I am reading the Psalm that corresponds to that day. Verses five and six of Psalm 11, the one for that “day of infamy,” say that “The LORD trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest – this shall be the portion of their cup.” Sounds like good counsel for America’s military and political leaders right about now.
