FW: Tom Clancy's Response ,
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From: Brett Lawler [mailto:brettlawler@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 1:08 PM
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Subject: Fwd: Tom Clancy's Response


Tom Clancy is cool.

:)


>
>For Tom Clancy, the world's highest-paid fiction writer - whose
>thrillers have sold 60 million copies and been turned into
>blockbuster movies - the events of Tuesday hold a special poignancy.
>In his best selling novel Debt Of Honor in 1994, he created a
>scenario chillingly similar to the attacks; a Japanese pilot crashes
>a 747 jet into the US Capitol buildings, killing the President and
>most of his Cabinet. Here, Clancy explains why the mood of his
>nation is now turning to revenge.
>
>***************
>
>It was a friend of mine formerly of the Royal Navy who first pointed
>out that the casualty count on this incident exceeds that of Pearl
>Harbor. Yes, my country has taken a big and costly hit, and
>somewhere, perhaps in South Asia, some people are exchanging
>high-fives and having themselves a good laugh.
>
>And maybe they're entitled to it. Like Pearl Harbor, it was a well
>planned and well executed black operation. But, you know, they've
>made the same mistake that Japan made back in 1941. It's remarkable
>to me that America is so hard for some people to understand. We are
>the most open of books, after all. Our values and customs are
>portrayed on TV and movie screens all over the world. Is the
>character of my country so hard to grasp?
>
>Japan figured that they could defeat us not physically, but morally,
>that America was not tough enough to defeat their death-seeking
>warriors, that we would be unwilling to absorb the casualties. (In
>this they were right: we didn't absorb all the casualties they tried
>to inflict - but that was because we killed their samurai much more
>efficiently than they were able to kill our men). An enemy willing
>to die in the performance of his duty can indeed be a formidable
>adversary, but, you see, we've dealt with such people before. They
>die just like everyone else.
>
>Perhaps the American sort of patriotism, like the British sort, just
>isn't bombastic enough for our enemies to notice. We don't parade
>about thumping our chests and proclaiming how tough we are, whereas
>other people like that sort of display. But they don't seem to grasp
>the fact that they do it because they have to - they evidently need
>to prove to themselves how formidable they are.
>
>Instead, our people, like yours, train and practice their craft
>every day, out in the field at places like Fort Bragg, North
>Carolina, and Fort Irwin, California. I've been to both places and
>seen our people and how they train. The difference between a
>civilian or a common ruffian and a soldier, you see, is training.
>
>A professional soldier is as serious about his work as a surgeon is
>about his. Such people are not, in my experience, boastful. If you
>ask what they can do, they will explain it to you, usually in quiet
>tones, because they do not feel the need to prove anything. Off duty
>they are like everyone else, watching football on TV and enjoying a
>quiet beer with their pals. They read books, shop at the local
>supermarkets, and mow the grass at home. They all enjoy a good
>laugh. They make the best of friends. They look physically fit - and
>indeed they are physically fit - because their job requires it, and
>every day they do something tiresome in the field, working at some
>more or less demanding field exercise, again and again and again
>until every aspect of their job is as automatic as zipping one's
>zipper is for us people in civilian life.
>
>But, you know, inside all of these people, such as the 82nd Airborne
>at Fort Bragg, or the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Stewart, Georgia,
>there burns a little flame. Not a big one; instead like the pilot
>light in a gas stove. And when you put more gas there, the flame
>gets bigger, enough to cook with. Inside every one of these people
>is something else, something you have to look for - pride. They know
>that they are good at their work, in the event they ever have to do
>it for real. This doesn't happen very often, and indeed they do not
>ordinarily lust to do it because it's a serious, nasty job. The job
>is the taking of life.
>
>Military organizations exist for only one mission: killing people
>and breaking things. This is not something to be undertaken lightly,
>because life is a gift from God, and a lot of these people - kids, really - 
>can be found in church on Sunday mornings. But their larger purpose - the 
>reason these kids enlist, both in my country and in yours - is to preserve, 
>protect, and defend their nations and the citizens who live there. It's not 
>an easy job, but someone has to do it, and typically the hardest jobs 
>attract the best of us. Mostly they never have to kill anybody, and that's 
>okay with them. It's knowing that
>they are able to do something difficult and dangerous that gives
>them their pride.
>
>This purpose, defending their country, is something they don't talk
>much about, but it's always there, and with it comes a quiet, steely look 
>in the eyes. Especially when something like this happens. That's
>when their sense of self is insulted, and these are people who do
>not bear insults well. They are protectors, and when those whom they
>are sworn to protect are hurt, then comes the desire - the lust - to
>perform their mission. Even then it's quiet. They will not riot or
>pose before TV cameras or cry aloud for action, because that's not
>their way. They are the point of the lance, the very breath of the
>dragon, and at times like this they want to know the taste of blood.
>
>Their adversaries just don't appreciate what they are capable of.
>It's something too divorced from their experience. This isn't like hosing 
>civilians with your machine-gun or setting off a bomb somewhere, or killing 
>unarmed people strapped and helpless inside a commercial
>aircraft. This means facing professional warriors at a time and
>place of their choosing, and that is something terrorists don't
>really prepare for. The day of Pearl Harbor, the commander of the
>Japanese navy told his staff not to exult too much, that all their
>beautifully executed operation had accomplished was to awaken a
>sleeping dragon and give it a dreadful purpose.
>
>Perhaps alone in his country, Isoroku Yamamoto, who had lived
>briefly in America, knew what his enemy was capable of, and for that 
>reason, perhaps he was not surprised when the .50-caliber bullet from a 
>P-38 fighter entered his head and ended his life.
>
>Whoever initiated last week's operation is probably not quite as
>appreciative of what he has begun as Yamamoto was. Because the
>dragon is now fully awake, and its breath is too hot for men to
>bear. America is now fully awake. Our quiet patriotism is a little
>louder now, but it will not get too loud. Why spoil the surprise?
>
>
>


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