The military target was of course the Pentagon. Unlike the World Trade Center with its complete and thorough destruction the Pentagon suffered relatively minor damage from its single airliner strike. Literally, after the predictable evacuations following the morning’s attack in many offices of the Pentagon employees were actually let back in to the building and work continued for the rest of the day. In New York two airliner impacts supposedly collapsed WTC towers 1, 2 and 7 and shut down an entire city for weeks but at the Pentagon – the seat of Americas military might – a building arguably one tenth the total mass of the WTC complex, one plane couldn’t even shutdown the entire building for the whole day. Of course this was all part of the plan.
Like the symbol of the rebounding American economy, the military headquarters of the nation with its impenetrable persona along with the iconic depiction of the diligent Pentagon employees marching back into the battered but barely-scratched building to continue the fight was an important image intended for the entire world to see. The message: If you hit us get ready to be pummeled back.
Close but no cigar
The third pillar, the civilian government, which only received a close-call by the downing of United flight 93 was in my opinion, and contrary to most, a direct hit and in fact was as psychologically damaging, even if on a subconscious level, as the hits on the WTC and the Pentagon. The 9/11 attackers got as close to hitting that pillar as they wanted to.
You see the obvious target for an assault on our civilian government and one that was directly in the altered flight path of the fourth plane was the White House. Some may argue that the U.S. Capital would have been a more significant target as it houses all of our state representatives and would have likely resulted in more deaths. But psychologically speaking the White House is not only the office and functional residence of the executive branch it also is the president's home. The idea of hitting a man at his domicile could easily and certainly did resonate with all Americans. We all have places that we call home and they all house our most valued possessions to include our loved ones. Attacking a man’s castle is tantamount to war.
But the plane didn’t hit the White House! Correct, but the suggestion that it was headed there and that the intentions of the supposed Muslim terrorists was to attack President Bush’s home, where his family lives and symbolically the national house of all Americans, was enough to cause the psychological terror the conspirators wanted.
The other psychological effect of a close-call on the White House was that the fact that the attackers missed their target in a way presented the president – this cowboy boot wearing, Texas tough-guy – as the man who was almost hit by the terrorists but who indirectly stood them down. I know this sounds confusing but it’s kind of like in that episode of Happy Days where Richey Cunningham is labeled a hero tough-guy just because he was willing to fight the Fonze to defend the girl’s honor… even though he never did. In that same way President Bush took on the persona in the minds of many Americans as the tough-guy, honorable-man defending his castle.
Further, when you factor in the prevailing story of the downing of United flight 93 – that passengers overtook the plane and crashed it into a field in Shanksville, PA (which is almost as unbelievable as 19 Muslim high-jackers simultaneously taking control of four airliners using only box-cutters) – this action by common Americans is reminiscent of citizens of old rising to the aid of their king. If the fabricators of the prevailing story were a little bit more romantic they might have included a piece about the citizen heroes chanting “Long Live Bush” as the plane went down.
This was the genius of the target that didn’t get hit. By not hitting the White House the president is labeled a hero and in perception assumes all the traits that come with that label without ever have to face mortal danger. And the irony of it all is that the president was never even in mortal danger or any danger for that matter because he was one of the string-pullers.
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