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Message from Alaska...



While we may be thousands of miles away, our prayers go out to everyone
involved. The following statement was issued by Mark Hamilton, President
of the University of Alaska. I may not agree with everything he says
below, but I thought his message was appropriate...


> President Hamilton has responded to today's terrorist attacks with the
> following message.  Please feel free to forward this to any of your
> University list serves.  It will also be loaded to his web site at:
> www.alaska.edu/pres.
>
> December 7, 1941, a day that as predicted has lived in infamy, has found
>
> these nearly 70 years later a companion.  Today we have experienced the
> sense of vulnerability and fear that until now was known only to
> Honolulu, Hawaii and to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, coordinated attacks on
> American soil.
>
> The coordination adds to the effect.  The selection of symbols of all
> three traditional elements of national power is the intended message.
> Terrorism is offered as the replacement for the economic, military and
> diplomatic power that have governed world affairs for centuries.
> Attacks on the world trade center, the Pentagon, and the State
> Department are not attacks on convenient, big buildings, but rather a
> direct refutation of the validity of traditional elements of national
> and international power.
>
> The coordinated high jacking of commercial airplanes to be the weapons
> in this act of war brings the threat of terrorism into virtually every
> American?s life.  Furthermore, the thought that a pilot under even the
> most acute duress would fly a plane into a building seems beyond
> unlikely.  That leads to the realization that these terrorists were not
> of the strangely comforting stereotype of drug-crazed fanatics; these
> terrorists could fly modern commercial jets, control them to the target
> and score direct hits.
>
> What will happen now is certain to be retaliation, probably at a level
> we have not yet seen.  We will be prudent in the sense of being sure we
> have the right source, but will likely be brutal in the scale of
> retaliation.  I would think that some form of symbolic retaliation will
> come very soon, certainly within a week, given the Clinton
> administration?s criticized 10 day retaliation time frame.  Very likely
> the United States will pursue a  subsequent retaliation, more thorough,
> far reaching, and, yes, more terrible than any before.  When terrorists
> have safe harbors we have no safe harbor.
>
> Being sure of the exact source will not be easy but will be done. The
> most compelling evidence will come from those parts of the coordinated
> attack that did not work.  There will be pieces of the plan that did not
>
> work out, terrorists get caught in traffic too, warehouses holding
> explosives have fork lifts break and so forth.
>
> These events may change the debate on ballistic missile defense.  The
> idea of a rogue nation firing a missile seems more credible given the
> use of manned aircraft as the weapon of choice.  Currently at risk from
> known missile systems are the targets of 70 years ago, Hawaii and
> Alaska.  Suddenly and tragically the continental United States has felt
> the sting of vulnerability that states 49 and 50 continue to live with.
>
> December 7 1941 now has a companion.  Today?s date is 9-11

--
Kathleen Hertel, Reference Archivist
Archives and Manuscripts Department
Consortium Library
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
907.786.1849

"Fear is the mind-killer."

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