This was posted on Weezer.net, the official bandsite of the band Weezer. This letter was essay was written by Weezer.net's webmaster's brother.


Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Some New Kind Of Pearl Harbor (by Mike, Karl's brother in law)

"You all know the story by now. Many thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands, lie rotting under tons of concrete and steel, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a loved one missing at this hour.

My heart goes out especially to the rescue teams who raced to their deaths this morning, and to their colleagues, who will spend the next many weeks searching among their remains beneath the late summer sun. I believe that the task of dismantling that pile will prove to be the single worst job on this planet.

Things will never be the same.

This morning [9/11] I awoke in a world where you just couldn't take a jetliner full of people and throw it like a child's toy at the biggest skyscraper around. I never really thought that the White House or a Yankee Stadium could, quite credibly, be destroyed in the coming weeks or months.

This is not terrorism any more. What happened today was no different than if a foreign airforce had bombed New York and strafed the people on the streets. It is, without exaggeration, war.

This is a Pearl Harbor of sorts, but probably not the sort that most people imagine. We are not at war with a nation or even a civilian population, we are at war with what probably amounts to no more than a few thousand men, unusual men who have the capability to carry their fight at a national level. Until today we could dismiss them as criminals and terrorists, tactical players of small parts on the world stage. This morning they became strategic players. I believe we are going to have a hell of a time wrapping our minds around this, but these [expletive deleted] are now no different than a medium-sized country in their ability to project power.

We can't bomb their factories, dismantle their air defenses, destroy their troops and go home. Their power is no less formidable but it is not comprised of factories and troops, contained by borders or even led by public figures. The classic model of war, and of victory in war, simply does not apply.

They can really hurt us, and they will probably continue to do so, and we may never be able to put a stop to it. Ask the Israelis how long a war like this might last.

Ask if they remember a day that everything changed forever.

I always try to look at both sides of things, especially when they [upset me]. On our side, I can predict that we will soon slap Afghanistan around for harboring our attackers, and that we might have some luck in tracking and killing some of those who were directly involved. Beyond that, I have no idea what to do and quite frankly I'm eager to see what the professionals can come up with.

On their side, I have to believe that they must really hate us, and hate us much more than any of us would ever have guessed. This was such an evil, hurtful action, of such great scale an involving so many suicidal participants... is madness really so common and so easy to focus? What else could this be, but hatred?

The Idiot Parade will start soon. The usual suspects will climb from their holes, dust off their suits, and try to explain to us how wiretaps are a good idea now, how too much freedom is a dangerous thing that really needs to have some limits on it. Others will describe how we should broker for peace by offering concessions.

Remember that we are strong because we are free and unbowed, especially when threatened. Let the mice return to their little holes and be done with them.

My call? We are really in an honest-to-god war, even if it doesn't look like one. Deal with it.

On an international level we should do everything in our power - not proportional things, or accepted things, but every thing - to hurt our enemies, to harass them, to frighten their allies and bring fear to any who would help them. We should not hesitate to torture or kill foreign nationals who dare come too close to them, who rally support for them, who trade with them or supply them. We should make them pariahs and we should stop at nothing to drive them into the sea. And we should consider it a source of national pride.

We shot a lot of [...] Germans and Japanese without so much as a search warrant, and don't imagine that we didn't kill am awful lot of innocent people who were just standing around in the wrong place while we were at it. War is ugly and unfair, an incredible, irrational waste of everything precious, and we just had one dropped in our laps, from 110 stories up. History will remember our response. Let's give them something they will never forget.

Excellent post.
This war will not be like any other we have fought.We need to change the rules to deal with these folks.The Israelis have been using assasination with great effect recently.We need to be able to target the masterminds and leaders behind these organizations,not just the idiots who volunteer to be suicide candidates.
I'm afraid that this war may end our friendship with many Arab States.I think that this probably Bin Ladens goal and not mere hatred of Americans.The reasons these wacos do what they do isn't mere hatred.They have an agenda.It is an agenda based on their interpretations of Islam.A lot of people are offended by this fact,but it is true.Bin Laden is a Saudi.The Saudi gov't is a monarchy,illegal under Sharia law.
These fundamentalists have long wanted to overthrow Arab Monarchies and replace them with Islamic Governments.Saudi Arabia is the goal and they want to drive the US military from Saudi.This is not about hatred of Americans because of our support of Israel.
We are asking all our allies to support us in our war.How are we going to act at the next suicide bomb against Israel? Ignore it and call for Israeli restraint like we have been doing?A major dillema here.If we end up supporting Israel as we are aking others to support us,we may find ourselves being kicked out of Saudi Arabia and accomplishing Osama's long term goal.
This is not going to be an easy war.

Leadslinger, very well put. I too agree that the Isrealies have the right idea. It's sort of funny how the United States Government would call for restraint everytime some whacked out Arab would bomb a market or a daycare or something, but now that WE are the targets, everyone is ready to pull out all the stops and go to war. Maybe we should examine the situation a little more closely the next time we think of criticizing the Isrealie's tactics when dealing with Arabs. Also, I agree Whole heartedly about the possibility of our getting kicked out of Saudi..... Who cares if we piss the Arabs off. We don't need them, even if they do have cheap oil! Heck, if we go over there and dish out a big enough A$$-whoopin', we may be able to just take all of the oil we want.