Robert Torricelli: “the calendar and history rarely perfectly coincide. It was remarked that the 20th century really began in August of 1914…”

“the calendar and history rarely perfectly coincide. It was remarked that the 20th century really began in August of 1914 with the commencement of European hostilities. It may, on reflection, prove to be true that the 21st century did not begin when that famous ball fell in Times Square; it began on September 11, 2001. The world has now been introduced to a new and difficult struggle against terrorism, asymmetrical war, held along the fissure lines of culture, prosperity, and commitment to law. I regret that the front lines of this new struggle have formed through the communities I represent in northern New Jersey and our neighbors in New York City. Last night, children waited at home for parents who never arrived. Spouses held dinner for husbands and wives who never came home. The battlefield of this new war was Manhattan and Jersey City and Fort Lee and Queens. We are all soldiers. There is a temptation to accept that this new chapter in the war on terrorism in a new century is merely a continuum of the same. Perhaps the scale and the intensity is only different from Lebanon or Saudi Arabia or, indeed, the World Trade Center itself 8 years ago. By definition, it is fundamentally different. The very scale of this attack and the premeditation of those involved suggest that the organizations or the nations that planned this attack intended to strike at the Government of the United States itself.”