6:45. I heard about the terrorist attacks during my morning ritual of fifteen minutes of coffee and morning news. My six year old now knows the word, Al Qaeda. Cuddled next to me in his SpiderMan pajamas, I gave him the briefest of details, but also didn’t change the channel. He can’t be sheltered anymore, because I fear this is his future.
I panicked and called Steve’s office knowing that there was no way that he was there yet, but I guess I just needed to know that his office was still there. He takes the bus or train into Manhattan every day and works in Times Square. I won’t feel good until he’s home tonight. He’ll have to pass bomb sniffing dogs to get onto his bus.
Oh, I hear fire alarms. What’s going on?
I need to send e-mails to friends in London.
Living with Terror.
UPDATE: A friend in London has been e-mailing me. First to let me know that she’s okay. (Steve, Joy’s okay.) Surprisingly, she’s still in her office which is right in the financial district. Steve was booted out immediately from his major Wall Street firm during 9/11. But since transportation was the target rather than buildings in London, they’re keeping people inside until things calm down on the streets.
She also mentioned that she has a long walk home and doesn’t have sensible walking shoes. Just those pointy office shoes. Whenever I compare notes with others who were in Manhattan during 9/11, the question “What shoes were you wearing?” always comes up. The little dumb parts of this drama that draws people together.
The leaders of the G8 have been right to contrast their work with the work of the terrorists. The lines of good and evil, civilized and barbaric, have never been so clearly drawn.
UPDATE: So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city. Andrew Sullivan has this and more.
UPDATE:: Norm Geras counts the atrocities.
Apt. 11d 
Would that be the same Andrew Sullivan who supported the war in Iraq because he said it was better to fight the terrorists there than in New York or LONDON?
Not that I’m bitter or anything….
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yes, the very same Andrew Sullivan. And we have had four years of fighting the terrorists ‘over there’, and none of the plans of bombing buildings in LA and Chicago which they had been intending have come to fruition yet. I can’t imagine that we would not have been attacked many times if we had not hit hard and fast after Sept 11. Comments like paigeb’s, which I associate with the Moore-ist wing of the Dems, are why I am voting for Reeps for national office, until I get persuaded that somebody serious about national defense is running on the Dem ticket.
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Dave—why label me a “Moore-ist” because I think Andrew Sullivan was wrong? It’s that kind of labeling that shuts down dialogue.
Nobody was saying not to hit hard and fast after September 11th. Afghanistan was the place to do that—not Iraq.
Fighting terrorists “over there” has not protected the Spanish or the British. Do you think it’s okay for terrorists to bomb them, as long as they aren’t bombing us?
I want someone who is serious about national defense too—and that means fighting the right enemy in the right place. If you think the Republicans are doing that, then, by all means, vote for them. But the evidence is mounting that this war has not achieved any of the stated goals of the current Administration, except for capturing Saddam. “Mission Accomplished” has turned out to be anything but.
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Play nice, kids.
For me, there’s a difference between the war in Iraq and the war on terror. I was never a big fan of the war in Iraq, because I didn’t like how the administration kept flip-flopping on the reason for the invasion. But now that we’re there, I believe that we have to support the troops and finish the job.
The greater war on terrorism, which is specifically aimed at groups that target Western nations and aren’t bound by geographical location, should be fought hard by a variety of methods from guns with silencers to diplomacy and embargoes.
Where does the war on terror and the war on Iraq intersect? I’m not sure. How much of an impact has either effort had on terrorism? I’m not sure.
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Terror
As a DC-area suburbanite, I feel rather blasé about the threat of terrorism. It may happen close to me, but I don’t expect to be a victim. Here, I don’t have that feeling of again in quite the same way. But it is the details, the little details that …
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