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Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 12, 2001

American retribution will be terrible

Today will go down in American history as a new Day of Infamy, a modern-day terrorist equivalent of the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

And it’s the kind of atrocity that the United States could go to war over — either overtly if they find a foreign government responsible, or covertly once they discover which terrorist group is launching the co-ordinated attacks against government and civilian targets in New York City and Washington.

It began at 8:45 this morning when the first of two hijacked passenger planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, turning the twin 110-storey towers into billowing smokestacks.

Shortly afterward another aircraft appeared to dive into the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. defence department in Washington, D.C.

The White House was evacuated. The Central Intelligence Agency was evacuated. An apparent third explosion blew one of the Trade Center towers into oblivion, followed soon afterward by the other tower.

Reports of other explosions and incidents — a car bomb at the State Department, a plane crash near Pittsburgh, another hijacked plane downed — are adding to the nightmare chaos and fear.

Where will they strike next? Who are they?

It is as if the whole country is under attack by a ruthless enemy who can strike at will at some of America’s most famous landmarks, its symbols of power, its ordinary citizens.

At this point, there’s no way of knowing how many fatalities and injuries there are, other than the 150 or more passengers and crew members from the first two hijacked planes. – Andrew Dreschel (Hamilton Spectator)