It could have been worse

Don’t get me wrong. The images of the devastation of the World Trade Center are among the most horrific I have ever seen. It’s difficult to imagine anything worse – short of a nuclear strike.

Yet, I can’t escape the feeling that, indeed, the attack could have been worse – much worse.

What do I mean?

If indeed the speculation about Osama bin Laden being the mastermind of this operation is correct, it leaves us with some unanswered questions. Because intelligence analysts have long suspected – even assumed – that this Saudi millionaire-terrorist has access to all kinds of weapons of mass destruction.

He is said to have an arsenal of chemical, biological and briefcase-sized nuclear arms.

Why didn’t he use them? Is he holding them back in reserve? Is what we witnessed last Tuesday just the beginning? Is it going to get worse?

These questions, I’m sure, are haunting the president, his advisers, the military forces, the FBI and others working on this case and the inevitable U.S. response.

These are also the kinds of questions that have, for a long time, haunted Israel – along with the U.S., the terrorists’ other archenemy. It’s the reasons halfway measures against such enemies are futile. They will not demonstrate any restraint against using weapons of mass destruction on their targets if given the opportunity to deploy them.

Some say it may have been difficult to get these weapons on board the planes. Maybe so. But chemical and biological weapons would not be seen by metal detectors – the only real security at American airports. Bags are seldom inspected by human beings.

That leaves me with an eerie feeling. Is the other shoe about to drop? Could the sound of that shoe dropping be louder than the first? Maybe we’re in a war with even bigger stakes than we imagine.

And, suppose for a minute that bin Laden is just one of several masterminds of this operation. Suppose – and there is very good reason to suspect this is the case – he is working in collaboration with others, including governments. Suppose our enemies have resources much more vast than any one terrorist organization could muster.

This could be much uglier than even the World Trade Center. This war could affect many more people – many more Americans.

That’s why it is so important that we, as a nation, actually figure all this out – that we actually discern all the parties responsible. It would be a shame if we pinned the bloody acts on Osama bin Laden, but the conspiracy was actually much wider.

I’m sorry to say I have little confidence in our government officials’ ability to get to the bottom of this heinous attack.

After all, it is quite clear to any person willing to look at the evidence that the government failed to find those responsible for much smaller tragedies – namely the TWA Flight 800 disaster and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Those attacks were precursors. They were not accidents. They were not the work of lone nuts or U.S.-based fanatics, no matter what the official story claims.

Some argued that the TWA crash could not have been the result of a terrorist action because no terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack. Yet, you will notice, that no terrorists have claimed responsibility for the Black Tuesday attacks either.

We also never pinned on Yasser Arafat the cold-blooded assassinations of our diplomats in the 1973 kidnappings and murders of Cleo Noel and George Curtis. You might recall, dimly through the haze of the World Trade Center aftermath, that President Bush was talking about meeting Arafat in New York days before the most recent attacks.

Because we have allowed terrorists to escape justice for so long, they have become conditioned to believe that they can attack the U.S. with impunity.

It’s time to rectify those mistakes of the past.

It’s time to exact vengeance.

It’s time to say, “Never again.”

It’s time to make them pay.

It’s time to destroy this monster.

It’s time to take them all out.

It’s time for a Holy War on the holy warriors.

Because, believe it or not, it can get worse – and it most assuredly will if we accept anything less than the total annihilation of those responsible.