WallStJournal

LIFE DURING WARTIME

Heroes of Flight 93 They didn't wimp out. Neither should we.

BY BRIAN CARNEY Sunday, September 16, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT

Evidence is emerging that United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that went down in western Pennsylvania, crashed where it did because a small group of brave passengers attempted to overpower their knife-wielding abductors and would-be murderers. Thomas Burnett, Jeremy Glick and Mark Bingham decided to give their lives to prevent a fourth tragedy like the ones that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.

Mr. Burnett, 38, father of three, called his wife on his mobile phone to say goodbye and tell her that he loved her. Mr. Glick also called his wife to wish her and his three-month-old daughter a good life. Then they, with Mr. Bingham, a fellow passenger, apparently attempted to "do something" about the men who had hijacked their plane. It would appear that they succeeded. They lost their own lives, but perhaps saved countless more as well as a national monument

Those heroes who gave their lives in the service of others deserve boundless praise and admiration. But we would honor their memory more by learning from their example. The price of a free society is a citizenry willing to defend those freedoms, to die for them if necessary. Much ink has been and will be spilled explaining that we need better airport security, and we do. It will be suggested that we follow Israel's example and place an armed, undercover marshal on every flight flown into, out of or within the U.S. This is a good suggestion, although it would require a force of considerable size in a country as populous and traveled as the U.S.

Lost in these suggestions, as well as the more draconian ones that will doubtless be mooted in the coming days and weeks, is the simple fact that in these cases, as far as we know, there was no grave breach of airport security, no real need for an armed air marshal to subdue these terrorists.

It would be foolish to suggest that all the possible permutations of such an attack could be handled the way Mr. Burnett and his fellow passengers appear to have done. But it would be far more corrosive to fall into the trap of believing, as some appear in danger of doing, that Tuesday's tragedy became inevitable the moment the perpetrators stepped aboard their respective planes that morning. The example of the passengers of Flight 93 shows definitively that this is not so.

Right now, America is looking to the president for a sign of how we will respond as a nation to ensure that this never happens again. We should also look to ourselves. What the U.S. government now does will perhaps have some effect on the likelihood of future attempted attacks, but perhaps not. While it is true that lightly armed terrorists might hesitate to hijack a plane if they believed that a gun-toting sky marshal would shoot them for brandishing a knife, it is also true that a nation of Thomas Burnetts would need no marshal to protect them.

It has already been suggested that we have left ourselves open to these attacks by being an open and free society. This is a lie. It is also insidious, as it will be used as an excuse to curtail our freedoms if we do not resist the lie.

We are faced with a choice: We can look to the government to institute measures to defend us against these attacks, or we can resolve, each of us, to learn from Thomas Burnett's example, to have the courage to stand up for the freedoms we cherish. Government has always been a poor defender of individuals' liberty. That is why, when the Founding Fathers agreed on a Bill of Rights to amend to our Constitution, it consisted of 10 measures to protect citizens from the state, and not from each other.

We do not know exactly what happened on those other three planes, or whether what the passengers accomplished on Flight 93--giving their lives that others might live--would have worked as well on the planes that hit New York and the Pentagon. But we do know that Messrs. Burnett, Glick and Bingham acted in bravery despite grave danger, and that in the case of one of the intended attacks, America's last line of defense--the individual citizens that make our nation great--held. We should honor them, and remember their example. All of us should hope that we would have been worthy of the challenge that they met, and conquered.

Sept. 11 will live in infamy, but the heroes of Flight 93 should be remembered as the national heroes that they certainly are.

Mr. Carney is an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Answers

Good read.

America's last line of defense--the individual citizens that make our nation great--held.

May it continue to do so against any and all that would destroy us.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001