The September 11th attack — Editorial
From the blackness of Sept. 11 can come light
The world stands today on the brink of enormous transformation.
What is unclear, however, is the shape that transformation will take. Are we headed for decades of fear and hostility?
Or, are we headed for a generation of global unity, where our common needs and our common humanity override our petty differences?
The answers to these questions are held by the United States and — more particularly — by President George W. Bush.
Bush has before him a leadership challenge greater, perhaps, than that faced by any president since World War II. Events not of his making have put him on the stage with Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt.
In some ways, the challenge facing Bush might even be greater, because it is truly a global challenge. The world awaits his leadership.
The task facing our president goes far beyond healing a wounded nation and finding those responsible for the bloody terrorist attack that shook us out of our complacency and conviction that we were safe from the world's trials.
In a strange way, America and its president have been handed a unique and wonderful opportunity. Perhaps never before has the world been so united in its revulsion for what happened, its sympathy for the victims, and its determination to see such tragedies do not happen again.
It is possible to believe that some of the expressions of sympathy and offers of help in the coming war on terrorism are little more than lip service. But they are what they are: first, fragile building blocks of what can be — with leadership — the foundation stones of a truly global community.
This presents a fascinating situation: In several important areas, President Bush had begun to develop a reputation as a great unilateralist — doing what is best for America no matter how it may have crossed our international partners. Now this unilateralist is forced by circumstances to become a multilateralist.
It has often been said that one of the best ways to motivate people and organize them toward a common goal is to give them a common enemy.
That we have, in the form of international terrorism. No country, no person, is immune from the harm that such terrorism can bring.
That means no country, no person, is immune from the call to march together on that terrorism and drive it from the face of the Earth.
The task won't be easy. It will require patience, iron resolve and an understanding that unity does not mean uniformity. The goals, beliefs and self-interests of others do not necessarily match our own.
If this global battle against terrorism is led properly, if it is driven by more than vengeance and blind rage, then Sept. 11, 2001, might be measured as more than a dark and horrifying moment; it might also be remembered as the beginning of an era of light.
