On Sept. 11, 2001, my faith was tested. I was not surprised by the tactics used that day and do not feel that our government was either. A story I’d heard while serving as a Marine years before, which involved the planning of a nearly identical attack to that conducted, prevented that from happening. What I was surprised by, however, is my own lack of faith when it came to our government’s response to the attacks themselves.

I wanted our government to act in a calculated manner, rather than emotionally. For the first to occur, though, our government would have to realize that the attack itself was meant to do more than simply frighten or kill Americans.

It is my belief that the terrorists never assumed that they might defeat the United States here in America with such limited resources. It is, however, logical to assume that they might have expected to defeat the United States in parts of the Middle East, where successful attacks in America would be seen as a sign of weakness, thus encouraging prospective terrorist allies to take up arms.

It might even be argued that Iraqis, Iranians and other Middle Easterners who currently defy the United States and her allies do so because they themselves found courage as a result of events set into motion that faithful day in 2001.

I hope that this possibility was taken into consideration, but can not be certain since I have yet to hear a single government official mention it.

Jamie Beaulieu, Jay