its technology, and its wealth. They will never understand that the
West's power is in its people. They see a politically divided nation but
are blind to its unity and cohesiveness as a community. They fail to
appreciate that in the face of catastrophe, all Britons are Londoners,
and all Americans call New Orleans home.
There are rumors that Bin Laden and his minions are sitting around
laughing at the spectacle of the mighty United States bungling the
relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. It is certainly ironic, and would be
laughable if not for the tragedy it caused, that for disasters anywhere
in the world, cargo planes laden with relief supplies are in the air in
a matter of hours and ships change course instantaneously to bring aid
and comfort, yet it takes us more than a week to reach our own victims.
The terrorists will never see, nor ever comprehend, the real story. They
have no interest in individual heroic efforts in the face of total
chaos. They pay no attention to the thousands of families who are
opening their homes, and their hearts, to the dazed, the poor, the
dispossessed.
They chortle at destruction, whether caused by nature or their own
design. But they cannot fathom the people who dig themselves out and get
on with their lives: the flood victims who find a dry haven and go out
to find a job; the subway riders who return to work the following day on
a different train; the financial workers who move into new quarters and
return to their duties; the families who grow in strength because of the
horror they have endured.
The terrorists believe that America is powerful because of its military,
its technology, and its wealth. They will never understand that the
West's power is in its people. They see a politically divided nation but
are blind to its unity and cohesiveness as a community. They fail to
appreciate that in the face of catastrophe, all Britons are Londoners,
and all Americans call New Orleans home.
The anarchists' subjugation of individual importance to their overriding
cause, and their misinterpretation of religious fervor, has forever
blurred their vision, concealing the rugged, optimistic, and unfailingly
generous individualism that created and maintains the America we know.
And because they don't understand us, they'll keep on heaping terror on
us, never realizing that they cannot, ever, win.
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