| Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001
01:04:20 -0500
Dear
Kevin, A
jetliner with its large store of fuel makes a beautiful
"missile-delivered bomb", so to speak.
The physical impact mechanically penetrates deep within the
building (including through the tower, in one case), with the aircraft
breaking up all the way. The
fuel already has its velocity and momentum, so is sprayed everywhere
deep within at that level or levels.
The resulting inferno ignites everything, and the heat is quite
fierce and sustained. The
steel framework is overheated, and after awhile as internal parts sag
due to the damage etc., the framework starts to buckle.
Once a little buckling happens, the building collapses because
its "shape strength" is destroyed or greatly reduced. The
buckling of the framework was in fact observed in at least one of the
towers, so that those on the scene knew that the building was going to
collapse quickly. Once
it collapses up above, the sheer weight of all that material now not
supported by the buckling framework, crashes down on the levels below,
which were never designed to take such intense overloads and massive
momentum "strikes". So
from there on it’s a chain reaction kind of thing, and the thing
just comes right down right where it is.
In short, it collapses right down on itself just as we so
vividly saw in the case of those two towers. This
is what happened. Apparently
nothing else was necessary. And
the two towers, because of their height, were ideally suited to
exhibit exactly such response, once hit by a jetliner that way, in
their middle or toward their top. This
is a sad and tragic day, and our prayers go out to all those dead
Americans and their families. It
is also an overt act of war. We
are at war, whether we like it or not.
So the time for talking is over, and the time for strong
military retaliation is here. If
we do not strike the perpetrators and strike them very, very hard,
then we would likely be in for an unending series of such strikes. My
personal belief is that President Bush is going to quickly find,
strike, and destroy the perpetrators. In
President Roosevelt's descriptive language in 1941 for the attack on
Pearl Harbor, this is another day that will live in infamy. Tom
Bearden
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 23:34:36 -0500 Dear
Jon, No
"special weapons" seem to have been involved. A
jetliner loaded with fuel makes a good bomb.
When a jet struck one of the towers, it penetrated on through
it, or the pieces did, and the fuel with its velocity is impelled on
into the building. So it
burned fiercely, setting the entire building on fire. The
flames and heat gradually weakened the structural steel supporting the
building, which then began to buckle. Eventually
it collapsed. That
is basically what happened in this case.
The buckling from the heat was observed, e.g., in the first
tower that was hit (but which collapsed after the second tower hit had
already collapsed). One
of the other hijacked aircraft that crashed, crashed not all that far
from Camp David. This
is a very sad day for America. Thousands
of peaceful American citizens are dead, while just peacefully going to
work to support their families. Our
prayers and deep sympathies are with all those families, and with
those dead Americans so tragically lost.
That is a loss of American lives of such impact as to be nearly
indescribable. This
is also an act of direct war against our country.
We have probably more casualties here than in the attack on
Pearl Harbor at the beginning of WW II, though we do not yet know the
actual final number. When
such a war attack occurs, the time for talking is ended.
The time for strong military action has arrived. Make no
mistake, this is a war. It
is not the classical model of war, but it is war nonetheless.
It is the most inhumane kind of war, for it is directed against
the civilian populace, against women and children and other
noncombatants. Sot this
is not the time for political debate or search for apprehension and
trial, which approach would be a travesty.
It is the time for our full military forces to destroy the
perpetrators, whoever they are and wherever they are.
And by whatever means are necessary.
Negotiation is one thing, war is another.
This is war. I
was gratified to hear President Bush express determination that those
who did this will be found out and destroyed.
And any nation shielding such terrorist murderers will also be
held accountable. We
simply cannot and must not allow such dastardly attacks on our
civilian populace to go unpunished, and no nation must be allowed to
furnish safe haven to such monsters unscathed. If
the nation does not act strongly and retaliate very strongly, then in
the eyes of the fanatics of the world we will be viewed as a wimp.
In that case, we will have an unending stream of terrorist
attacks on our cities and our population, all across America.
This kind of war cannot be appeased, else one sews the wind and
reaps the whirlwind, to borrow a phrase. So
far, there have apparently been no indications of any associated
releases of anthrax. smallpox, or other biological warfare agents.
I am still fervently hoping that today is the end of this
coordinated set of attacks. Simple
explosive materials (the hijacked airliner and its large load of fuel)
have already produced American casualties in the thousands.
The addition of coordinated anthrax or smallpox attack, by
ground terrorist teams, would move the casualty number to the
millions. God
willing, this has not been the case, and we will not see these
casualty figures suddenly jump three orders of magnitude.
Else we will be facing our worst nightmares come true. With
deep sadness for our American citizens who have died so terribly, and
for those grieving families, Tom
Bearden |