On Sept.11, the United States was confronted with horror unlike any it had ever experienced. In an attack as audacious as it was malefic, unknown persons seized control of four commercial jetliners and slammed them into both towers of New York’s famed World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

The images of that jetliner smashing into the South Tower, followed by the collapse of both giant skyscrapers will be forever etched into the national consciousness. At the time of this writing, the number of dead and wounded remains unknown. Indeed, the final count may never be fully realized.

As the initial shock wears off, the first question in the mind of many is why? Who in the world would be possessed of such hatred and malevolence as to plan and execute murder on such a mass scale? The answer to that is both simple and complex. There are people who do harbor such evil intent towards Americans. The attack on America proves that they have the resources to transform their intent into terrible reality. Such people believe that their hatred is justified by what they consider the oppressive actions of the American government.

To a certain extent, their efforts are aided by American innocence. For many years, geography and technology had given the United States the comforting illusion of safety and security. There have been attacks on American interests, such as embassies and warships. But these took place on foreign rather than native soil. Also, Americans tend to be short sighted about tragedies, consigning them to annual moments of silence, often neglecting the lessons that could be learned from such events.

Then, there is the contentious, squabbling nature of American society. For men accustomed to the wielding of power in an absolute, ruthless manner, America must appear an inviting target, a people potentially powerful but fatally weakened by their democratic orientation and institutions. They attack the United States not in response to specific deeds, but rather because they think they can get away with it. Yet, in doing so, these terrorists have ironically revealed in themselves the same flaw they perceive in their victims – short sightedness. History is full of examples of governments and individuals who have underestimated America, who have mistaken debate for divisiveness, compassion for weakness, complacency for a lack of resolve. Some have actually lived to regret their error, and nearly all have learned the terrible price to be paid in invoking American anger.

It will probably not come immediately. American actions in the late 20th and early 21th centuries have shown a growing awareness of the need for attention to international law. Our anger shall most likely be tempered by our sense of justice and our willingness to be patient, to get it done, but to get it done right. Even as we grieve for the loss of our own, we shall examine, analyze, and investigate. The guilty will attempt to hide, to rationalize, to enshrine their ignorance and celebrate their malevolent bigotry as divine retribution for imagined or exaggerated misdeeds. When exposed to the light of truth, they will scurry like cockroaches, and like cockroaches they will be crushed.

For eventually they shall be found and made to answer for their actions. Whoever they are, wherever they go, they shall know fear and pain. Not enough to compensate for their evil, it shall never be enough. But they shall know justice, both here and in the next life. The motherless, craven creatures that executed this foul deed have achieved some measure of success. Buildings have been destroyed, the orderly course of many lives has been disrupted, innocent people have been murdered. Americans have been reminded once again that there is evil in the world, and that for all our confidence and complacency we can be touched and hurt.

But the American spirit is far greater than the sum of our weaknesses. The infamy of September 11 has welded the people of this country into a unity of anger and purpose that cuts across all political and social lines to support the promise of our President. Like the mythical phoenix, America shall rise from the ruins of terrorist horror, and there will be nothing mythical about the retribution it shall visit on those who perform terrorist acts and those who, by sheltering terrorists, make those acts possible.

Let it be done.