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Unimaginable terror:
Who will be hit next?
by Tarek Atia
Cairenes -- like the rest of the world -- remain glued to their television screens early Wednesday morning, shocked by the events unfolding before the world's eyes.
Tuesday's multi-plane hijackings and crashes, resulting in the destruction of two of the world's tallest and most important buildings and the loss of what could be tens of thousands of lives, seemed more like a movie script than anything else. But it wasn't. The image of the plane smashing right into New York's World Trade Center -- then later, the sight of that 110-story building collapsing like a deck of cards, won't easily be forgotten, precisely because it was so real.
In Egypt, channels 1, 2, 3, Nile TV, both Egyptian satellite channels, Nile News and several other local channels were beaming coverage -- mostly culled straight from CNN -- into homes, coffeehouses and offices, both satellite and non-satellite enhanced.
It was a tragedy beyond all imagination. President Hosni Mubarak said as much, offering his condolences to the Americans. Mubarak condemned terrorism in very straight forward terms, describing the US as "a strong country, no one can deny that."
In Palestine Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin also expressed his rejection of such acts, but added that the attack was an inevitable result of tyrannical US policies. "America is reaping what it sows in oppression," is how Yassin's analysis was translated by the BBC.
That sentiment was being repeated by a lot of people around the globe -- including a few being interviewed on Egyptian TV.
The plethora of former US military and intelligence officials being interviewed by the western TV networks occasionally revealed the kind of gut reactions to the tragedy that -- if followed through on -- meant America would continue to get that sort of reputation worldwide.
You had former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger urging the US to bomb nations like Afghanistan, which he said harbored terrorists. There was much speculation of Middle Eastern connections, Osama bin Laden: but at the same time, other analysts were keen to note that it was too early to point fingers.
The possibility of a threat from within -- homegrown terrorism like the one that resulted in the Oklahoma City bombing -- was given very little attention. More air time was being given to the apologists who were saying that innocent people who might die in any possible retaliations were a necessary evil.
Parallels with Pearl Harbor were being made, with the only difference being that this time there was no clear enemy. Was this -- like that fateful day during WWII -- the signal that the US could no longer keep itself disengaged from international, near war crises like the one currently going on between Israel and Palestine?
Who would bear the brunt of US anger this time?
"Everyone is pretty freaked out," one Arab American told cairolive. "People are pissed off because the US got caught sleeping, and now someone is gonna pay."
"Probably ten thousand people died here today. 1000 people died in Pearl Harbor and the States came back and killed 150,000 Japanese. 200 people died in Oklahoma City. This pretty much dwarfs both of those. There may be some anti-Arab or anti-Muslim feelings over here if they decide to blame us," he said.
Fearing the same sorts of anti-Muslim violence that occured after Muslims were initially blamed for the Oklahoma City bombing, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations was asking American Muslims to be vigilant. "Those who wear Islamic attire should consider staying out of public areas
for the immediate future," the group's Action Alert suggested. Amongst its other suggestions were:
"Request additional police patrols in the vicinity of mosques. Post mosque members at entrances and parking areas during prayer times. Report suspicious packages to police. Document descriptions of suspicious people or vehicles."
CNN immediately jumped on isolated incidents of explosions in Kabul, Afghnistan, wondering whether the US had quickly, and already responded. After all, we were being constantly reminded, the US military around the world was on its highest alert. But the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, categorically denied that the explosions had anything to do with the US.
The Pentagon, which had been severely hit by one of the planes, will be in business tomorrow, Rumsfeld said.
Senator John Warner of Virginia told reporters that it was "indeed the most tragic hour in American history," but, Warner said, trying to inject a note of optimism, "it could be its finest hour."
Shock would quickly be turning to revenge in America. George W Bush's latest statement: "We will find these people, and they will suffer the consequences for taking on this nation. No one can diminish the spirit of this nation."
Bush -- whose reactions to the crisis had gone from shocked and nervous, to nervous but authoritative, attempted to shore up that spirit in an address to the US public -- and the world at large -- at about 9pm Tuesday night, Washington time.
"Attacked because it is a beacon of freedom," Bush told the world from the Oval Office, America was now filled with a "quiet, unyielding anger."
The question on everybody's mind was: how would that anger be expressed?
...Developing...
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