NYPost

REBUILD OR SURRENDER

September 13, 2001 -- Rescue workers dig through the rubble, and the big-wheel dumptrucks haul away dusty debris - but it is by no means too early to begin planning for a brand spanking new World Trade Center.

Indeed, now is exactly the time to begin thinking of how best to rebuild the lower Manhattan skyline - exactly the way it was before.

To do otherwise - to designate the site sacred, to memorialize the dead - would be wholly to miss the point of Tuesday's attack.

It was meant to alter New York, permanently. And not just New York. The terrorists' goal, remember, is to disrupt the everyday lives of everyday Americans, to sow fear and force America to grieve.

And, as President Bush declared, it cannot stand.

New Yorkers, above all, must not let them succeed.

But the best way to honor the dead is to rebuild - as soon as possible.

The worst way is to obsess on the dead.

It might be weeks - maybe even months - before it is known exactly how many died Tuesday.

Never consider them "victims."

Rather, they were casualties of war - a new kind of war, but war nevertheless.

Those who died in New York, and in Washington, and near Pittsburgh, died in a battle just as surely as those who died at Pearl Harbor.

"The deliberate and deadly attacks, which were carried out yesterday against our country, were more than acts of terror," President Bush told the nation. "They were acts of war."

He couldn't be more right.

And that makes those who died not just victims of terror, but casualties of war.

For years, Israel had a policy of regarding citizens who were kidnapped and, often, held for ransom by its terroristic foes not as "hostages" or "victims," but as prisoners of war.

Every Israeli, in that sense, is a soldier.

So, too, must every American now be a soldier.

Tuesday's attacks were directed at civilians. This is a war targeted at civilians.

Such a concept may have been anomalous to the West - before Tuesday.

Now, the West had better get used to it.

But this doesn't mean Americans need cower in their homes and fixate on the dead.

Quite the opposite.

Don't wear a black ribbon.

Pin a miniature American flag to your lapel.

Once upon a time, the mothers of those who fell in service to America wore tiny gold stars; the friends and families of those who died Tuesday might do the same.

Not to symbolize victimhood; far from it. But as a mark of solidarity.

President Bush has urged Americans - while taking appropriate precautions - "not [to] allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way of life or restricting our freedoms."

What better way to do that than to proceed as expeditiously as possible to rebuild the World Trade Center?

It'll cost a lot.

But not nearly as much as not rebuilding.

A permanent hole in the skyline means the terrorists have won.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2001

Answers

"Indeed, now is exactly the time to begin thinking of how best to rebuild the lower Manhattan skyline - exactly the way it was before."

I couldn't disagree more with a knee jerk reaction to rebuild "exactly the way it was before". I do believe it should be rebuilt. A truly obscene tragedy has opened back up an outstanding valuable piece of real estate. To the extent that it is appropriate for the particular private sector interests, the public sector should be involved in the debate. A thread elsewhere indicated it was original built, at least in part, as an urban renewal project with some contribution from the public sector. There are different values and controls now than when it was first constructed. I hope they are constructively activated.

And personally, I sure hope we can edge our way away from these glass infernos. Planes and bombs aren't all that could endanger the lives of the folks in those buildings.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2001