Time to Put the Emotions Aside -- PEGGY NOONAN

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Wednesday, September 11, 2002 | PEGGY NOONAN

[TroutStalker]

Rudy Giuliani said the other day that he wasn't absolutely sure the next morning, on Sept. 12, that the sun would actually come up. When it did, he was grateful. And so we are today, as we mark the anniversary of the day that changed our lives.

[MeekOneGOP]

[Dacus943]

"Let's get coldly serious: Arm the pilots, fortify cockpits, man flights with marshals, and profile passengers."

Ya THINK???

[smiley]

MEGA DITTO PING!

[hchutch]

Peggy Noonan.

For the first time, I have to disagree to an extent. We need to keep the anger - heck, even keep the hatred for those who perpetrated this attack going.

At least until we've ensured they can never do such a thing AGAIN.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

How does Peggy always write what I am feeling, yet don't know how to put into my own words? She is amazing! This is the best thing I have read all morning.

[TLBSHOW]

"Saddam is evil" is not enough. A number of people are evil, and some are even our friends. "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" is not enough. A number of countries do. What the people need now is hard data that demonstrate conclusively that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction which he is readying to use on the people of the U.S. or the people of the West.

If Mr. Bush has a good case, he will make it and the people will back him. If he does not, he will not convince the American people that blood and treasure must go to this endeavor. The people must believe, as Mr. Bush does, that their children are endangered. There was a time -- I think it was Sept. 10, 2001 -- that Americans may not have been able to accept such an assertion. That time has passed.

peggy noonan

[TroutStalker]

Bump.

[logos]

I remember an analogy I came up with about this time last year when I had to speak to a group about how we should react to the atrocity which had just been perpetrated upon us...

A farmer who has recently harvested his year's corn crop, and gotten it all safely in his bins, discovers a week later that rats have moved into his corn. What they don't eat, they crap on. Unless he responds, and quickly, very soon his profit will become a loss.

Does he waste any time hating the rats? Don't be silly; our farmer is a practical and pragmatic man. He knows that rats have no choice - they must be rats. But he doesn't waste any time trying to "love" them, either. There's no time to try to empathize and determine why a rat must be a rat; it is sufficient to know that he is a rat.

What the farmer does is really quite simple. He uses any and all measures necessary to kill the rats in his corn bins. If he's a bit of a sport, he might sit high up in the rafters and ping a few with his .22, but most he'll just poison. However he does it, he won't stop until every last rat is dead because he knows that leaving only one will guarantee that new rats will come back.

Born and bred terrorists are vermin, human rats who walk on two legs. They cannot be changed back into the humans they once were; there isn't enough time. Their stated and demonstrated purpose is to kill us. Reason and logic are useless. Kill them. Before they kill us.

Anyone who hasn't the stomach to do what needs doing just needs to get out of the way until the job is done.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

"Let's get coldly serious: Arm the pilots, fortify cockpits, man flights with marshals, and profile passengers."

I would like to add...

Stop all immigration for 10 years.

Stop issuing student visas for 10 years.

Deport ALL illegal ALIENS.

Secure the northern and southern borders.(for real...with military help)

Overhaul the INS from the groud up.

Exterminate any known Islamic terrorist organization operating within the borders of America, and prosecute any of their supporters for treason TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW.

[Lil'freeper]

Well said.

[js1138]

In time we will put the memories away, pack them away in a box with a pair of old gloves, and a citation and a badge, and some clippings and pictures...

The memories will not be put away until the war is over and won.

[EllaMinnow]

A Peggy Noonan ping - because nobody says it better.

[A. Pole]

We need to keep the anger - heck, even keep the hatred for those who perpetrated this attack going.

Yes, you are right. If we let out emotion cool and start to use our brain we might notice that WTC were not Iraqis and that Sadddam Hussein is not Bin Laden. We cannot have that!

[BraveMan]

Why not coldly remove Norman Mineta now?

Throw Mineta on his ass out into the street. No more foisters delivering defective measures upon the citizens of this country. Produce what is expected; real airline security, now!

[fporretto]

Noonan is eloquent as always, but she could have made her central point more clearly.

Anger and hatred are motivators, and as such can be put to use. However, we can best use them if they're firmly harnessed to our rationality. Fury is always more effective cold than hot.

Our military men in Afghanistan were undoubtedly filled with anger at what had been done to America, but they disciplined it, kept it and themselves under tight control. The man whose rage masters him, rather than the reverse, tends to flail indiscriminately and ineffectually. This, we must avoid.

I hope Dubya, Rumsfeld, and the war planners are still filled with anger -- but I hope even more strongly that they're fully its masters, that their capacity to set priorities and execute well thought out plans of action directed at well conceived goals is unimpared by the effervescence uncontrolled rage can inflict on the brain it possesses.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[Interesting Times]

...they'd fight for the lifeboats like the wealthy on the Titanic.

Peggy missed the boat here -- nearly all the rich men on the Titanic behaved with exemplary courage, remaining with the ship while women and children were loaded on the lifeboats.

[iranger]

Now that is coldly serious. Unfortunately it seems beyond the realm of possibility, but I agree wholeheartedly.

[hchutch]

If Saddam had nothing to do with the attack, then why is the agent who met with Mohammed Atta still alive?

And what about that terrorist training center at Salman Pak? One where hijackers are trained in methods similar to those used on 9/11, I might add.

Then there is serious questions about his compliance with UN resolutions from the cease-fire in 1991. And he could easily provide those weapons to a terrorist group.

Saddam's the likely gas, germ, or nuke merchant for terrorists. He's got to go first.

[KC_Conspirator]

I agree. I am not ready at all to "move on" from the attack on America last year because if you do that we will have sequel to September 11th.