| Never in the history of the United states have we faced a
crisis equal to what is happening now.
A group of desperate terrorists have made an enormous miscalculation about our nation and our people. They have destroyed a part of the heart and soul of our greatest city and they have killed thousands of innocent people. There is no religion that justifies mass murder. They were counting on America to reel in horror and panic. They mistakenly believed that if they made us pay too high a price in our homeland, we would stand back while they accomplished their ultimate goal which is the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people. The whole world is watching us now. Our enemies are watching us now. In the next few days and weeks and months we will be judged. We are one nation, under God, indivisible. And we must prove what a nation we are. We must show the world and especially our enemies what Americans are made of. If our nation dissolves into a panicked mob, the entire world will pay the consequences. We must hang tough. We must not let this attack break our spirit or rob of us our liberties and freedom. Remember the dark days of World War II when German bombs were raining down on London. The people of Great Britain, that great nation which founded us, put out the fires every night after the rocket attacks, picked up the rubble from their streets the next morning, and went on to join us in the effort to rid the world of the Nazi menace. Americans are the children of every great nation and peoples on earth. And every one of our homelands and people are people who have been tested in a time of fire. Our strength is born of a hundred nations and every race and religion that has combined on our soil to grow into the greatest nation on earth. Today we are all soldiers of liberty. In our hearts we know what is right and what is the right thing to do in our time of trial. And remember the words of our national anthem....through the rockets' red glare, and bombs bursting in air the truth through the night was that our flag was still there. Our flag is still there. A beacon for freedom. --General Bruce Castleberry Copyright 1985 by Hugh Holub |
This statement was originally included in a movie script entitled "January 20th" written in 1985.