Opinión Internacional
Some notes on the terrorist attacks on NY and Washington
- Whoever is responsible of these attacks has the fire power of a medium world power. That responsible one has:
- The capability of a very strict and efficient military organization, enough to cause a disaster of warlike dimensions. This organization is deeply familiar with the United States inner workings. It is impossible to command this precise action from afar. The head of this organization must be in the scenario where the actions were to be executed. It must have a technological, daily, dense and trivial familiarity with the affected installations, as these actions require a detailed and long planning, very acquainted with the procedures of an advanced industrial society.
- A suicidal team competent enough to fly high-technology aircrafts. These are not improvised casual pilots because flying these airplanes requires not only a very good proficiency but to be up-to-date in the latest technological developments, usual in these aircrafts. All the more because these were not routine flights but maneuvers that require a very good command and cold blood.
- A leaning for the spectacular. TV stations interpolated some scenes from known Hollywood motion pictures where New York is the target of destruction with scenes taken from the September 11th events and the difference was not radical. The humanity could watch the most ghastly images live, with no censorship and no consideration. It was not only a direct physical aggression, but an indirect symbolic aggression against mankind. TV was a perfect ally of the terrorists.
- The targets were symbolic of two basic components of the United States: the economic and the military powers. It is an ideological objective inasmuch as these are not a classic military action destined to control an objective. It is not a coup d’état or an invasion. It is the metaphorical display of the destruction of the financial and military basics of the first world superpower in its two emblematic cities. Notwithstanding,
- Until now there has been no verbal manifestation. Like people who commit suicide, who leave a note, the terrorists usually express themselves. In this case the only enunciation has been non-verbal. Only the deeds have expressed themselves, with no discourse, with no intelligible articulation. This looks like some other scattered but coherent actions: the ones in the Columbine high school and the Oklahoma terrorist attack. What terrible message would have these terrorists to justify such an out-of-proportion action? Is it that there are no words to express that? Will that be the new universal language we will have to speak in the 21st century?
