When the history of the Sept. 11 attacks is written, Osama bin Laden will be seen as having made a lot of mistakes. One of them might be timing:
The terrorists should have waited for the last of the Greatest Generation to die. Then, the rest of America might have had a little more painful time figuring how to react.
Without those who fought and won World War II still among us, maybe we would have been a bit more tempted to panic and engage in a massive overreaction. Or maybe we would have fretted that our comfort and safety were too precious to risk.
Instead, America had the history of the Pearl Harbor attack, 60 years ago today, to fall back upon. We knew that patience and resolve could be our strengths. We remembered that moral conviction had steeled the earlier generations of Americans whom fanatic enemy leaders had misjudged as lacking in spiritual vigor.
We recalled parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends’ stories about the shock felt on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. And how they reacted. They were rallied by a president’s great speech (as we were soon to be). They made their individual decisions and lived their lives in ways that, finally, brought peace and justice.
Young (and not-so-young) men volunteered for the front lines. Some flunked one physical, and kept trying different service branches until they passed. Women volunteered to join their already-enlisted sisters who had nursed the burns and injuries of the military and civilian casualties on Oahu. Other women stepped into jobs from offices to farms and factories, even as they kept their families strong and healthy. Rosie the Riveter and GI Joe both made victory possible.
On Sept. 11 and the days after, it was a comfort to think of every man and woman still here from World War II. There was a persistent thought that we could turn to one of them for advice if the road ahead looked too grim.
If this new conflict had started in another decade or so, there would have been far fewer World War II veterans in our midst. It would have been a little harder to think straight without the reassurance of knowing they were here.
Still, the practical difference in America’s response to Osama bin Laden’s barbarism might not have been all that great. Pearl Harbor and the men and women of that era — the ones still living and the ones who have died — had long since taken a central place in American history. The stellar examples they provided were already with us, not to be forgotten.
Today, we can promise again to keep their history alive. And we can thank them.
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