The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country.
Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives . . . It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerrilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy . . .
. . . We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once . . .[George W. Bush] will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force . . .
. . . The lid is on. Loose Lips Sink Ships. Don’t say anything that might give aid to The Enemy.
Hunter S. Thompson nailed this one
Hunter S. Thompson had long since lost his fastball by 9/11. Within three and a half years he’d be dead. But what he wrote on 9/12/01 — like so much of what he wrote when the stakes were truly high — was dead on the fucking money.
