Difference between revisions of "Catastrophic Terrorism/1993 WTC attack"
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| − | [[category:!article]][[category:quotes]] | + | [[category:!article]][[category:quotes]]In the section entitled "Imagining the Transforming Event", the authors speculate on the consequences if the [[1993 WTC bombing|1993 bombing of the WTC]] had succeeded or been more drastic in nature: |
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
| − | <p>...the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it | + | <p>If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or the distribution of a deadly pathogen, the chaos and devastation would have gone far beyond our meager ability to describe it.</p> |
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| + | </blockquote> | ||
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| + | This has been widely quoted (e.g. [[Snowshoe Films/Zelikow/part 1|Snowshoe Films]]), perhaps somewhat misleadingly, as speculation that if the 1993 WTC bombing had succeded, | ||
| + | <blockquote> | ||
| + | <p>...the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. [Such an act of catastrophic terrorism] would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unrecognized in peacetime and undermine America's fundamental sense of security...</p> | ||
<p>Like [[Pearl Harbor]], the event would divide our past and future into a before and an after. The United States might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence would follow, either future terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently.</p> | <p>Like [[Pearl Harbor]], the event would divide our past and future into a before and an after. The United States might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence would follow, either future terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently.</p> | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
| − | + | Unless there is another version of this paper somewhere, this version is somewhat mangled and not entirely accurate. It shifts the emphasis from trying to ''warn'' people of the possibility of a serious terrorist attack to almost gleeful ''anticipation'' that such an event came close to succeeding, and could well succeed in the future. | |
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| + | If there is an indictment to be made against this article, it would have to be over the matter of whether the authors were urging taking those "draconian measures" ''in advance'', using potential terrorism as an excuse – and that is not immediately clear without a thorough reading. | ||