Where were you that fateful morning?

Where were you that fateful morning?

Tony O’Donnell

I remember where I was that morning. I woke up in the bedroom of my house I rented in Tallahassee, FL along with 4 other roommates. It was a typical day – up late, trying to plan the day and shake off the night before.

We turned on the news and sat stunned at what we saw. New York City. There was massive smoke, ash and debris pouring out of the World Trade Center. Firefighters and Police were furiously running around trying to maintain order and calm the obviously terrified citizens, all knowing that at any moment more damage to the tower could manifest itself as a total building collapse. Not too mention one tower toppling into the other killing over 250,000 people. This troubling point was not lost on us as we discussed the potential horror ahead.

“They had better get everyone out of those towers!” I remember someone saying. No one replied. We were all simply too scared to talk and admittedly drawn towards the TV in an attempt to get any information at all, and to bare witness to this entire spectacle unfolding in front of our eyes. Who would do this? Who could pull something like this off? Why were we taken so off guard?

The building suffered massive structural damage after the initial attack. The blast cut off the center's main electrical power line and cut off telephone service for much of lower Manhattan. The bomb caused smoke to rise up to the 93rd floor of both towers, and cut off the towers' four stairwells and emergency lighting system. Also as a result of the loss of electricity most of New York City's radio and television stations lost their over-the-air broadcast signal for almost a week, with television stations only being able to broadcast via cable and satellite via a microwave hookup between the stations and three of the New York area's largest cable companies, Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable.

The terrorists reportedly wanted the smoke to remain in the tower, therefore catching the public eye by smothering people inside, killing them slowly. He anticipated Tower One collapsing onto Tower Two. Later on after the investigation of the attack it was revealed that the terrorists received financing from al-Qaeda. Leader Khaled Shaikh Mohammed admitted that the World Trade Center attack was an act of terrorism, but that this was justified because "the terrorism that Israel practices (which America supports) must be faced with a similar one." (1)

At this point my head was spinning with the notion that we are seen as this “great Satan” to much of the Middle Eastern world. Remember that most of these areas are vastly poor and completely uneducated regions of the world. Mark Steyn recently spoke to this point on an interview with Mark Levin when he cited statistics showing that Spain had translated more books in the past year than most Middle Eastern countries had in the past 1000 years. This helps to understand the lack of reason in this area of the world but does not in any way excuse unprovoked attacks on U.S. citizens.

Bottom Line: America is not the problem, it is the solution. Until the Middle East (and the rest of the civilized world for that matter) understands and accepts this simple principle we are in for a long and dangerous ride. How many times must we defend the principles of LIBERTY and Free Markets? We as Americans can pursue any avenue we so choose. We are not restrained by anything except our own personal work ethic and drive to succeed. Capitalism has its inherent “evils” of inequity, but these pale when compared with the Communist model or outright Fascist rule. Top down big government that comes in disguise to help “the children” or “the poor” does the very opposite by continuing to create masses of people dependant on the government for their very way of life. America is a great country filled with decent and wonderful people.

Yet we are attacked by terrorists who would rather cut off the head of a captured American journalist to make their point than enter into any type of discussion or negotiation. These people are still in the dark ages for all practical purposes, so any debate would be folly. Only a pro-active “War on Terror” (although I hate that phrase) will ultimately rid the world of these murderous zealots. We must stand together on this principle. This is after all the MAIN role of our Federal Government, the protection of its citizens.

The attack on the World Trade Center was truly a horrible and unprecedented event in U.S. history.

I remember where I was that morning.

The morning of February 26, 1993. The morning of the FIRST attack on the World Trade Center.

(1) Wikapedia.org excerpts