April 16, 2006 -- With the release of transcripts from doomed Flight 93, the nation last week was re minded of the elemental nature of the war that began in earnest on 9/11 - and of the inspirational heroism of the Americans who were among the first to fight in it.
Flight 93 went down in a Pennsylvania field after a fierce struggle between passengers and the terrorists who had hijacked the aircraft.
Had it been allowed to complete its deadly trajectory - perhaps to the White House or the Capitol - the toll surely would have been far higher.
The plane's passengers refused to let that happen. The terrorists announced they had a bomb and demands, trying to fool those aboard into thinking that it was a traditional - what a quaint concept - hijacking and that the plane would return to the airport.
But that wasn't to be.
Two passengers' throats were slit. And, as the recording played at the sentencing hearing of 9/11's 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, makes clear, events in the cabin were harrowing, with the killers barking commands: "Shut up!" "Sit down!"
A woman desperately begs for her life. "Please, please, please," she cries. "Please, please, don't hurt me . . . Oh God . . . "
She repeats, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die."
Her voice is not heard again.
A minute later, a voice in Arabic says, "Everything is fine."
Throughout the transcript, too, there are references to the terrorists' perverted religious sensibilities. "In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate," a voice says in Arabic.
Presently, passengers learned from cellphone calls what had happened at the World Trade Center. In mortal peril and with hope ebbing, they acted.
"In[to] the cockpit," a voice directs. "If we don't, we'll die!"
These were average, everyday Americans, unaccustomed to violence and untrained to fight.
The terrorists were cold-blooded killers - ready to do anything to fulfill their mission.
For decades, until now, passengers on hijacked airplanes had been instructed to comply with orders; doing so saved their lives.
Not this time.
Not on Flight 93.
The immortal words of one heroic passenger, Todd Beamer, became a rudely awakened nation's rallying cry: "Let's roll," he said, as these instant soldiers - America's first in the War on Terror - resolved to retake the plane.
The nation, too, stiffened its spine and swiftly joined the battle.
"Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger," President Bush told the world in an address before Congress nine days later. "Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done."
Bush warned Americans not to expect "one battle but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen."
Did America have the resolve?
You'd best believe it. Said Bush, famously: "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."
Four and a half years later, as a violent and complicated situation drags on in Iraq, some Americans desperately seek to go back to sleep.
There's been no attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, so they assume that the war is over, that the threats have passed.
Fat chance.
Like it or not, this is an age of preemption. Be it Iran, Iraq, al Qaeda or any other hostile party, the rule today must be: Act before it's too late.
The courageous souls of Flight 93 figured that out. They gave their lives in the battle, saving others - for which America should be forever grateful.
And they set the painful but noble tenor of a new day.
