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Horror Without Precedent September 11, 2001 will forever be burned into American history as a day of horror without precedent. Our hearts and prayers are with survivors and families of those who were murdered in New York City, the Pentagon and near Pittsburgh. Though still appalled by the damage, the United States is already recovering from these attacks. Fate has written many painful chapters in America's history. Each is sharply engraved into our collective memory. Most are battles and wars. Gettysburg. Pearl Harbor. Iwo Jima. Pork Chop Hill. Others were acts of madmen like the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the slaying of our Presidents, Lincoln, McKinley and John F. Kennedy. The magnitude of the September 11th attack defies understanding. It is the scale of what happened that temporarily freezes the mind in horror. The wrenching sights of passenger planes deliberately flown into the largest symbols of America's economic and military might was an assault on how we think of ourselves, our nation and our role in the world and in history. The terrorists' real goal was to destroy our confidence. Our confidence in ourselves, our government and our place and role in the world and history. I can report to you without any doubt that, on this score, the terrorists have failed completely. In fact, I believe they have strengthened the resolve and will of the American people like nothing else I have seen in my lifetime. As shock gives way to action, recovery and the identification of those responsible, we must remember this is not the first time the American people have been tested. History has probed the limits of our strength and patience many times, over many generations of Americans. As the realization of what has happened continues to sink into our national consciousness, we must never forget that each time our nation is tested, each time we have survived -- as we will again. And while it seems impossible to believe just days after this attack upon our soil, we must draw strength from the knowledge that each test has failed to diminish our nation. Just the opposite. America's history is written by a people who rise to every challenge fate and history has thrown our way. We are the greatest and most powerful national today precisely because we have met and triumphed over adversity. This is what it means to be an American. This is the strength of character that built this nation over the last four centuries. Americans do not face challenges. We surmount them. And we grow stronger as a result. I am confident that we are already seeing this today. We see it in the faces of the New York fireman and police officers. A grim determination and smoldering pride etched in the ashes on their faces -- etched with sweat. And tears. And blood. Our immediate focus must be to recover from these attacks. And to tend to the victims and their families. We may not know the full toll for many weeks. In the longer run, we must recognize that these attacks demand an appropriate response from the United States. I know the President of the United States will throw the full weight of the U.S. government behind the task of identifying and destroying those responsible for the attacks. The President and our troops have the support of both political parties in the U.S. Congress and the full support of the American people. That is what I told our U.S. troops stationed in Missouri during my visits last week to Whiteman Air Force Base, Fort Leonard Wood and other military posts in our state. Our nation must not rest until those behind the attacks are destroyed. Our unyielding anger will span the world and reach the terrorists wherever they may try to hide. The world is not big enough to offer them the concealment they seek. And any nation that seeks to provide protection or cover for the terrorists ought to think twice before doing so. The President is correct to make no distinction between the terrorists and those nations that shelter them. The price of doing so will be very high. America is a different nation today than it was before September 11th. We have been attacked in a way without precedent, in kind and magnitude. Our nation needed time to grieve. We needed time to tend to our dead. And to care for the wounded and their families. Now we must take the right steps to make sure this never happens again. The attacks of September 11th, have shaken us. Yet, the bedrock beliefs and principles that anchor the United States remain strong. Just how strong is something the terrorists will soon discover. |
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