Justice weeps

I saw the airplanes go into the buildings ... and the smoke, and the fire, and the death. Again.

I saw – instead of hearing about – the fear, the terror, the courage and the patriotism of the people on one of those planes who knew they would die, but did what needed to be done.

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I saw it all on two screens, one small and one large, one at home and one in a theatre. What I saw left me in tears and, at the same time, filled with a visceral hatred for the people responsible for the unspeakable carnage.

What I saw was make-believe in detail, but painfully real in the telling because what was on the television and on the movie screen was the terrorist hijacking of United Flight 93 and what happened on board the plane before it crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all on board – the good people and the evil ones, the people who did not deserve to die and those who did. There is a perverse justice in that.

My viewing of the two films took place last week, within three days. I hadn't planned it that way, but it happened and I'm grateful for it.

The first film made was "Flight 93" and was aired on A&E earlier this year. It got huge ratings. I missed seeing it.

Then, when I learned that Universal Studios planned to release its version of the hijacking, "United 93," on Friday, April 28, I decided to see it.

I wasn't about to miss it since I strongly believe that Americans – and, yes, other people, too – need to see what happened that September day when America was attacked by foreign terrorists with the clear intent to kill people, destroy property and harm our nation.

Given the enormity of what they intended, they did a pretty good job ... billions in property damage, billions more in economic damage, and the loss of some 3,000 innocent lives – men, women and children – caught unawares both by the attack and by the reality that they were victims of what President Bush and others, myself included, consider the specific beginning of World War III. It will be a long war.

I may have missed the A&E airing, but lady luck was on my side this time. By pure coincidence, I saw both films within three days. I couldn't have planned it any better.

I came home from work Saturday evening, April 29, and discovered, quite by accident, that A&E was re-airing the special. I saw it, missing only the first few minutes.

Then, Monday afternoon, I saw Universal's theatre version of the same hijacking, terror and crash.

Was it overkill? Was it too much? Was it too much Hollywood and not enough reality?

No, no and no ... none of the above. Everyone involved in both productions deserve kudos.

The time I spent watching the films and reliving the horror of that day was the least I could do to honor the people who were killed. Both films were a portrayal of fear and courage and patriotism and loyalty and love.

They were also clear portrayals of evil – something that does exist, but which Westerners have difficulty accepting. The films clearly illustrate the fact that there are people who do not have Western sensibilities regarding the value of human life.

There are people who have no compunction about killing innocents simply because they do not like their beliefs or how they live. There are people who enjoy using barbarism to cause fear and terror and death. These are the people who want us dead.

It's about time we see such portrayals of the horrors of 9-11. My only question is: What took so long? I'm infuriated by the pompous rantings of the media and academic elite who intone it was "too soon" to see such dramatizations of 9-11.

If five years is too soon, how long must we wait? The actual footage of the attacks on the World Trade Center is still being censored by media gatekeepers who believe they know best what we the people should know about the attack that enveloped us in a new kind of war with a new kind of enemy.

The truth is that if we're prevented from seeing the reality of the carnage of 9-11, we'll never be able to fully protect ourselves as the next battles occur. Evidence of that is already seen in the controversy over Afghanistan and Iraq, in the efforts to demean and prevent the investigation, capture, interrogation and incarceration of terrorists.

Evidence of that is seen in the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui – a Frenchman from Morocco – who was found guilty of conspiracy in the 9-11 attacks and who, the jury decided, was eligible for the death penalty.

But when push came to shove, the jury was more concerned about Moussaoui's allegedly unhappy childhood and decided he should not be executed.

They were wrong. Moussaoui deserves to be dead.

Capital punishment is not vengeance or revenge. Capital punishment is justice.

Moussaoui's execution would be some justice for the 3,000 innocents whose blood is not only on his hands and those of all al-Qaida terrorists, but also now on the hands of each of the jurors.

They were wrong and they'd best know it. If a conspirator in the mass killings of 9-11 is not deserving of death, then who would be?

It appears we're in a crisis of belief, of conscience, of morality, of responsibility, of duty, of patriotism, of honor and, yes, of common sense.

Justice wears a blindfold, but today it's drenched with her tears.

If we've become so "civilized" that we don't properly respond to the wanton killing of innocents, then we'll be victims of those same killers again. They'll have no reason to fear us for there will be nothing we can do to stop them.

If we are truly at that point, we're closer to our own demise.

If we are truly at that point, we've shown a shallowness of character and have betrayed the courage of the people on board Flight 93 – as well as those on the planes that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – to say nothing of the police and firemen who risked and lost their lives saving others.

"Flight 93" depicted what happened on board the plane as the passengers realized they were on a suicide flight and that they had to do something to prevent the plane from being used as a missile into another building. They stormed the cockpit and beat up the terrorists. They were brave and selfless – they were patriots.

"Flight 93" told the same story, but also showed what was happening to family members on the ground as they got phone calls from loved ones on the doomed plane.

I was in tears. I realized, as I watched the film, that on the actual 9-11, I'd been sitting on the same couch, in the same room, watching the same television, as families just a few miles from me were living in horror as they talked to loved ones who were about to die.

It made the reality of 9-11 – which shook me to the core – even more vivid because it became more personal. It put a face on the fact that my neighbors were killed that day, and as I watched the terrorists in the movie, without even thinking, I said out loud, "I hate those SOBs."

They're wanton killers. They're the enemy and they're evil.

These two films should be required viewing for every American, starting now.

No, it's not too soon.

I hope it's not too late.