20 September 2001, Copyright © Turkish Daily News
Opinion by Mehmet Ali Birand
America unrecognizable
- The lively New York we had known has gone; in its place is a New York that is broken and devoid of trust and joy. The American people rather than getting used to it day by day are calling for revenge without delay.
Whenever I used to fly to New York, I would get all excited when I saw the Twin Towers. New York was a city without equal. A completely different world, awake for 24 hours a day, always lively and where the restaurants were always crowded...
Whenever I got off the plane and made my way into the city, I would always whisper to myself as if to some secret lover "I'm here."
This time, my arrival was very different.
The abnormalities began the moment I boarded the plane.
Having to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of the flight; having to be checked from head to toe three or four times; having to eat with plastic cutlery and having to travel with people looking around them with worried eyes.
Every plane going to America frightens. Each one is followed as if it could turn into a bomb. In fact, every tanned and bearded individual like myself is looked at strangely.
After an eight-hour flight full of worry and suspicion, while expecting to meet your former young love, you find a New York that has the fatigue of old age, and is full of sadness and timidity.
It looks like New York is not going to shrug off this attack so easily. That former confidence is lost. The restaurants are deserted. The most confident and richest woman that ever took on the world is unfortunately no longer with us.
I am certain she will return one day.
But when is not clear.
Americans want blood and revenge
Nothing like this had ever been seen before.
Rather than slowly getting used to it, the American people are calling for blood and revenge without delay.
There is a phenomenal wave of nationalism sweeping the continent. Flags everywhere and people demanding that action be taken as soon as possible.
America cannot stomach this incident.
They cannot accept that a dozen or so Arabs came, waited among them then struck at their hearts, in the places they were most proud of.
The "Undefeatable Armada and Security Heaven" that had been formed over the years through the spending of billions of dollars has collapsed. The people are blind to everything now.
I heard the same words from everybody I spoke to:
"That s.o.b should be found and dragged by his feet or cut down where he stands. They have got to pay for this act."
In the past, had the Americans wanted revenge, they would have expected it to be bloodless or at least not risking the lives of American servicemen (Vietnam syndrome). This is why it has always been carried out, especially during the Gulf War, by long-range, remotely guided smart bombs putting the minimum number of U.S. soldiers into the battle as possible.
This time the opposite applies: nobody gives a damn.
The bells of revenge are tolling even it means losing American servicemen's lives.
According to the last poll, 85 percent of Americans are calling for "revenge, now."
What is interesting is that those who do not want war are all over 60: the generations that saw World War Two and the Vietnam War. They are warning, "We will suffer even more." But nobody is listening.
Nobody knows or expects anything
Nobody knows anything here.
The American military machine and the political cadres have imposed censorship perhaps for the first time. Nobody is speaking, making comments or even hazarding guesses.
Those who do speak, experts outside of official circles, are filling the TV screens and newspapers with guesses, "If anything, this might be how it goes."
The general expectation is that the first blow will be struck soon. It is being asserted that precision bombing will be the preferred option in order to assuage public anger and show that a long-lasting fight has begun.
Another factor the experts dwell on is that Usamah Bin-Ladin frequently changes his location and gets himself lost in various caves and crowded cities only the Taliban know of.
At this juncture, the Bush administration is taking the toughest decision yet: It is identifying who the enemy is.
This is the first time America is going to war amidst such major uncertainties.
Mehmet Ali Birand's article is translated by TDN staff
mailto:mbirand@ibm.net
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