September 11, 2001: A Date Which Will Live In Infamy

Below are a number of statements that were made during the course of history and after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Discuss the meaning of each statement as it applies to past and current events.

"We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is unsufferable."

        - Hirohito (1901-1989)
            Japanese Emperor
            following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

"This is not only an attack on the United States but an attack on the civilized world."

        - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

"...monstrous criminals who have demonstrated a vile and brutal affront against humanity"

- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

"It is impossible to fully comprehend the evil that would have conjured up such a cowardly and depraved assault
upon thousands of innocent people."

        - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.
These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

        - George W. Bush
            Address to the US after hijack attacks on the
            US World Trade Centers and Pentagon

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service
of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

        - Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
          American political theorist, writer
            The Crisis No. I. published December, 1776