ABSTRACT
At 8:45 a.m. EDT on the morning of September 11, 2001, an American Airlines jet flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center. With the collision of a second plane, into the south tower, it became clear that the media was not covering an accident. This was confirmed within the hour as an American Airlines plane flew into the Pentagon and another hijacked flight crashed south of Pittsburgh. CNN banners screamed “Breaking News” above “America Under Attack.” And for several days thereafter, CNN announced the “Attack on America.” But the “attack” quickly became an act of war, this generation’s “Pearl Harbor.” It is not the intent of this chapter or this book to speak to the validity of this analysis. (My cousins, academic historians living in lower Manhattan, found it impossible not to feel themselves in a warwitnessing war crimes against innocent civilians.) Nonetheless, given that other rhetorical and political postures were available, the goal in this discussion is to detail how the particular road taken-the construction of a nation at war-is aided through the strategic deployment of language.
