WHAT WERE THEY THINKING

This spoke legions in the thoughts that are going through our minds as Americans.

By Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald

We'll go forward from this moment

It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting is believing eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement.

We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN....Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world.

You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US.... You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started.

But you're learning.

USED BY PERMISSION

I think all of you should hear my view and the feelings of my Comrades-in-Arms on this grim subject. I will be as pointed as possible, but bear with my frustration and anger.

It saddens me that it takes a terrible act like this to wake up the American people as to how vulnerable and naive we are. Advanced Terrorists, like we are dealing with, are not stupid and it could have been (AND CAN STILL BE) much worse......If you don't think so then you have a false sense of security.

I guess the thing that really makes me mad is that all of us that joined the Military and have chosen to make a Career of "Defending" our country don't get the chance to do so. None of us joined to put our lives on the line to defend Third World countries, yet we do. And we don't hesitate in doing so. Because we are Americans and we have the ability and the heart to help these countries, we help. And we pride ourselves when we do. A lot of times Congress, based on the views of the American people, tie our hands. In Kosovo right now if one of my friends engage and actually pull the trigger it would surely end his career.

In the past 14 years myself and my brothers have found ourselves in more foreign lands than we can count. Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Kuwait, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Haiti, Panama, the list goes on and on. We show up in these countries to help establish peace and end the violence only to find the violence shift towards us. Sometimes we find the very people we try to help turn on us killing us. Read "Blackhawk Down". I lost friends in Somolia. I have many friends now with the Gulf War Syndrome who have slept restlessly for years, waking up uncontrollably shaking and sweaty.

We go to these countries with good intentions only to be slapped in the face. Saddam Hussein has had every opportunity in the World to straighten up.

Now they spit right in our faces and attack our homeland. This country has not had its mainland attacked since the Revolutionary War. I am saddened, but more so hurt, as most of you are.

To be downright blunt with all of you, we in the Military are pissed off beyond belief!!

One Senator said it well, "If you are a country undecided, you better make decision in the next day or so. You are either for us or against us. Period"

We are the strongest Nation on Earth and I truly believe the biggest hearted. If you don't think so you better re-evaluate your heritage.

We in the military are prepared to defend this great Nation and show the World that this is unacceptable. I am finally qualified in both the front and back seats of the Apache and am finishing up the test pilots course here at Rucker. Send me and my comrades to Defend this Nation!! We finally have a reason to be put in harm's way.

None of us have a death wish, unlike our adversary, but we are willing to fight and die if need be to defend our way of life.

If the President makes a decision in the next few days to put some of us in harm's way (Which some of us already are, Tom, Skill, Wade) know that this time it is different, this time it is for US.

Pray for those still buried and pray for those unsung soldiers that are so undoubtedly doing their duties covertly right now.

Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey J. Braunhausen, U.S. Army

Feel free to forward......
Jeffrey J. Braunhausen