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103 Attack on America ON THE MORNING of September 11, 2001, I was having breakfast with my longtime friend the federal judge Ortrie Smith and his wife, Kris, in the members’ dining room along with Jack Pollard, my chief of staff. During our breakfast one of my staff told me that Susie had called with news of an explosion at the World Trade Center, and that an airplane had flown into it. I remembered a similar incident many years before at the end of World War II when a B-25 had flown into the Empire State Building. It had been bad, but it did not cause the building to crumble. Before we left the dining room, we were made aware that the second tower had also been struck by an airplane. One airplane could be an accident, but that second plane changed everything. That was the moment we knew America was under attack. We went back to my office in the Rayburn Building to follow developments on CNN. About 9:45 another staffer rushed into the office, switched the channel, and said, “Ike, they’ve hit the Pentagon.” And we heard later about the airplane that ended up in the field in Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter we were all ordered out of the Rayburn Building, and staff and members gathered in the street and the park behind the office buildings. Then the policemen told us to get out of there and start running because another plane was headed for the Capitol. At the time, seeing all these people gathered outside, I thought that this might be a perfect target. Fortunately, we all ended up over at my aide Whitney Frost’s house nearby. That evening I went over to the Pentagon, where the fires were still burning. I got a briefing on what happened from three Navy officers and thereafter I went on home. The next day I went to the floor of the House and spoke. I’m not sure I can say it any better today. Yesterday, people touched with evil brought hate and darkness to a land of light and freedom. I need not recount the details of their crimes. Those will forever be too familiar. I saw some of the damage firsthand at the Pentagon A t t A c k o n A m e r i c A 104 last night. But the lives that they took, structures that they damaged, were not the true target. Here is what they attacked: The idealist nation that guarantees all of its people equality in law, and enforces it in deed. The determined nation that time and again deploys its finest men and women to restore peace where it does not exist, and to maintain peace where it does. The generous nation that gives more selfless support to other countries than any other in history. The steadfast nation that is the first one called when disaster strikes, when tragedy erupts, when fortune’s heart turns cold. That is what they attacked. They killed many Americans. But they did not kill—they could not kill our idealism, our determination, our generosity, our steadfastness. They could not kill what makes America America. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the commander of Japanese forces, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, mused, “I fear we have roused a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” Those who assisted in perpetrating this deed should take those words to heart. Because resolve, too, is in our national character, as Admiral Yamamoto learned to his eternal regret. We do not go weeping through the streets. We do not wail and beat our breasts. We just set about, methodically and with great certainty, to bring justice. To those who devised and plotted this attack, I say: You will not find haven in the world of decent men and women. And the hearts of many others will be turned against you. If you believe, as the attackers did, that your own life has no value, America will be glad to cash that check. And any country that dares harbor you will pay its due. At the same time, I hope that all Americans will remember another lesson of the Second World War: that not everyone who looks like our idea of the enemy actually is the enemy. Tragedy is no excuse to create new injustice. Let me extend my sympathies and those of the Congress to all the families of the victims, and particularly those who were killed or...

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