I wasn't going to say anything about this because I really have nothing to say that hasn't been said better by others. I am far away from the tragedy and, so far, know no one who was directly affected. My heart goes out to those who were affected (or who died or were injured).
Having said that, I'd like to respond to an article on Disenchanted
While I agree with some of the concerns mentioned, I'd like to point out some problems with the comparison of this attack with a strategic act of guerilla warfare. These attacks had no chance of causing any lasting or serious harm to the United States. The government and military are decentralized enough and redundant enough that no one or even two strikes could eliminate our ability to respond. Certainly, killing the President would be somewhat demoralizing, but hardly crippling. And I imagine that a commercial airliner heading for the Whitehouse would be shot down. The Pentagon is tough and is in pretty good shape considering that it was directly hit by an airliner. The World Trade Center has been totally destroyed and the loss of life is tragic. But the economy will go on. This attack was pure terror. Those who planned it may have naively thought that they could do some lasting or serious harm to the United States but they were seriously wrong.
As far as being an act of heroism, these suicide bombers are often trained (brainwashed) from an early age to believe that such acts win them material rewards in heaven. They firmly believe that by doing this, they will enjoy pleasure and riches in heaven. Thus their act of bravery is not as much of a sacrifice as it might seem. They also sacrificed themselves to kill a bunch of civilians who probably had no interest in harming them, not enemy soldiers hunting them down. I would be a lot more impressed with an Iraqi soldier who blew himself up to take out American tanks in Desert Storm, for example, than an extremist fanatic who blew himself up to kill a bunch of white collar workers in an office building.
As far as American revolutionaries shooting British soldiers from the woods, these men were fighting for the Independance. They didn't go to London and blow up stores. They shot soldiers. These terrorists are taking out civilians which is both evil and counter-productive. In addition, the whole shooting from the bushes thing has been blown way out of proportion. Many of the battles of the revolutionary war were stand up battles or sieges, just like in any other war.
What a lot of these terrorists forget, I guess, is that Americans are basically lazy and somewhat isolationist. We live pretty good lives and most of us are not very interested in what goes on elsewhere. I know people who aren't aware of who the Taliban are, who bin Laden is, or what happened to the U.S.S. Cole. Now they all know and are all actively interested in doing something about it. By doing this, these terrorists have attracted the interest of a people who are now pissed off about having their lives disrupted and want to find out who did it and slap them down. As interventionist as our government may have seemed to others in the world, it was fighting a complacent people who didn't want to see American lives put at risk. That attitude has changed. Many people are quite willing to see American blood spilled if that's what it takes to obliderate these terrorists.
My only hope is that we retain control enough to determine who really did this and direct our anger and retaliation against those responsible and others like them. I believe that is necessary to discourage others in the future. It is convenient that the rational action coincides with revenge (if done right). What we must avoid is indiscriminate bombing that will only make more in the world rise up against us.
Update: I would like to add that the ones who are cowards are not the ones on the plane. The cowards are the masterminds who brainwash others to die in these suicide attacks while they remain alive.
December 19, 2001: After a month or so, it seems that the United States took carefully considered action in Afghanistan and succeeded brilliantly. Hopefully the people of Afghanistan will follow up by building their nation into a more modern, free, and prosperous place than it ever could have been. Now we'll see who's next...