Dear John,
I was so stunned by today’s events that I never reached the excited stage where panic and fear take over and you begin to strike out in the dark only to realize there’s nobody there but you. From what I know we do not have conclusive proof of the perpetrators of this dastardly act. Yet Henry Kissinger, and others, are talking about “organizations” (read: Bin Laden) and the report that the U.S. is “90 percent sure” it was Bin Laden coupled with former Defense Secretary William Cohen’s assertion that “speculative evidence” is sufficient in picking a target for a response, leaves no doubt in my mind at whom a response will be directed, warranted or not. That there are many officials who feel that the U.S. response to the bombing of the USS Cole was insufficient and purchased today’s tragedy, gives an indication as to what kind of response it will be.
My day started with me dropping my daughter off at preschool, and several hours later I went to pick her up. I kept thinking of all those kids in New York whose parents dropped them off at school and won’t be picking them up. The thought is overwhelming. That, coupled with the sudden disclosure of our vulnerability, and the idea that every day in our skies we have hundreds of “bombs” which have only to be guided to their target, makes me fearful that the response can be directed at anybody. It has only to be large enough, and devastating enough, to say to the world, “Don’t f**k with us.” And that, at this moment, is what I think the American people want more than anything.
Until tomorrow,
August
