I was told about the 9/11 attack by a frantic son-in-law who had just heard
about it. He and his wife and their seven children were visiting my wife and
me on Topsail Island, NC. We spent the rest of the day consoling one another,
and especially the children. All of us knew "The World Had Changed!”
Although I was deeply horrified, I was not surprised. Growing up during World
War II, I had spent two years in the greatest city in the world. Six months
on Staten Island where I attended Wilson High School, and about 18 months on
Fort Hamilton where my father served as the senior military security officer,
in charge of the protection and the safety of the Port of New York. He worked
incredible hours and I seldom saw him. The war materials that flowed out of
New York Harbor during that period were critical elements behind the final Allied
Victory against the Axis. It was a 24/7 operation where people slept in shifts,
and often worked while eating.
That these supplies could be produced so fast and shipped so securely were constant
proof of the miracles that America has been famous for since its birth. The
country stood united against the great evils that then threatened the world.
It was proud of itself, secure in its common mission, and unwavering in its
determination to rid the world of rogue states whose agendas were totally nationalistic
and against the general rights, security and happiness of humanity itself.
Even then New York City was not totally safe from major disaster. Enemy agents
and saboteurs were constantly at work to undermine America’s war effort.
The great French passenger ship, Normandy, had been caught in American waters
when France caved in to the German Nazi onslaught after a pitiful resistance.
She was being rehabbed into an Allied troop transport in the Brooklyn Navy Yard
when, just before she was to be re-commissioned, she caught fire and burned
up at her pier. That this was a major act by foreign agents was never verified
but remains today as the most logical conclusion.
At the Bayonne Military Ocean Terminal, countless liberty ships and allied transports
were loaded with all types of war materials and personnel, formed into convoys
at anchor in the harbor, and sneaked into the Atlantic Ocean through a submarine
net located somewhere around Hoffman Island.
I remember well my father’s great concern over safety and security at
the terminal and a rumor prominent at that time, that an explosion of a loaded
ammunition ship within the harbor could level Manhattan from the Battery to
Times Square. In fact a German sub did torpedo one of these ships somewhere
off Coney Island just after she had cleared the submarine net. I can still hear
the explosion that woke me up that night.
Fast-forward now to 9/11. Like Pearl Harbor, our nation was struck again through
infamy. The target stayed the same, but the enemy has changed.
Before, wars were mainly fought between uniformed armies, many of which honored
to some degree the Geneva Convention as to the rules of war. Not now! We are
up against transnational terrorists who deny all human rights that don’t
conform to their personal specifications. They recognize no national government,
and no international laws. They evidence no recognizable strategy, yet are extremely
inventive in their horrible tactics. They remain as mysterious in their purposes
as in their organizational structure. They appear to combine the worst of human
thuggery into an ill-defined international gang, tied together primarily through
the world’s grand availability of weaponry. They lust for the technology
that is rushing forward to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction in devices as
small as a modern pistol. If you want to envelop their territory, you must provide
an envelope that encloses the earth as high as they can fly.
It seems an odd coincidence that when I was a Junior at Fort Hamilton High
School in 1943, my English teacher spent most of our class periods fostering
the expected benefits that would flow from a new international organization
called The United Nations which would grow out of an Allied Victory in that
current war. I have waited for her dreams to come true for over sixty years.
Sadly the huge UN headquarters in Manhattan today stands as a monumental symbol
of how inefficient that expensive organization remains at bringing peace and
stability to even the world’s smallest and weakest nations. That we should
subordinate even a sliver of our sovereignty to such a body when the world itself
is afire, is at its best a sign of madness.
Today we are moving at super-sensitive speed toward a very critical Presidential
election. This nation has always been very strong and resilient. But whether
it can safely weather any possible outcome in 2004 is a mute question, one that
has probably not been as critical to the health of the nation since the Civil
War. Today our people are divided less by economic boundaries than by their
ideological brain sets. Debate is not taught in most of our schools, colleges
and universities. Try to find a college student that is majoring in Logical
Reasoning. Slogans, buzz words, and op-ed arguments rule the media. Most of
us are treading water in a vast sea of muddy information.
The times scream for a leader that will lead, a vision that is global, a government
that acts with speed and purpose, a faith in proven values and a dedicated military
force that remains always willing to risk sudden death to insure the freedom
of our citizens. The people of New York City on 9/11 epitomized these American
characteristics. These characteristics now guide the National agenda. Let us
not water them down with politically correct trivia. Let us keep the winners
winning until terrorism has been beaten down, not just at home but round the
world.
Copyright © 2004 By John Andrus