A VIDEOTAPE seized by American intelligence agents in Afghanistan shows Osama bin Laden gloating over the attack on the World Trade Centre and expressing surprise that the twin towers had collapsed. The tape, found in a private home in Jalalabad, throws doubt on whether the two aircraft flown into the towers were deliberately aimed at places where their impact would destroy the entire structure.
Well, DUH. Nothing anyone has found so far indicates that the terrorists had planned for the towers to come down. They almost certainly expected them to stand, and then we'd have this giant, towering symbol of what they could do as we struggled to figure out exactly what to do with the buildings. (Well, nobody's had to bring down a supertall building before, especially in the middle of a city. Really, nobody would know quite what to do.) You wouldn't be able to look at the towers, whether they were repaired or lowered or whatever would have been done, without remembering. Granted, they achieved much the same goal by taking them down, but it was almost certainly not their first choice.
Think about it: the one thing you can say about the attack on the towers is that it worked too well. The terrorists had remarkably limited goals, from what we've heard. They wanted us to know that we could be hit and hurt, that our skies were not safe, and they wanted to provoke us into the sorts of response we've had before. And if all they had done was to kill a few hundred people, it may well be that we wouldn't have done much more than pummel Afghanistan for daring to harbor them. Hard to tell. However, an attack which kills thousands, which destroys two buildings, sends a hard shock through our economy, damages a chunk of the nation's largest city ... that sort of attack not only demands a more comprehensive response, it demands a relatively well thought out one.
Because the World Trade Center was, in fact, exactly what the name states, it also turned out to be not only the largest attack on US soil and citizens, but the largest single terrorist attack against the citizens of several countries. Most of our major European trading partners lost at least 100 people each, from what I've read. Yemen -- cited as a supporter of terrorism itself -- lost more than 60 people. Had the towers stood, other countries would not have lost as many people, and might not have been as ready to support us.
It'll be fascinating to see what decision the administration comes to about releasing the tape. I can't see how it would possibly hurt; anyone wanting to be recruited by them is already gone.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!