The United States continues to recover from the acts of terrorism, as the events may take years to completely leave citizens’ minds, on a daily basis.
Last Thursday night, a confident President George W. Bush ensured America it will not be a victim.
Yesterday, Bush said he plans to change the way of American flying. He proposed placing armed federal marshals on virtually all U.S. commercial air flights and significantly boosting the federal role in airport security screening, as part of a package of proposed administration airline and airport security measures to be unveiled today.
The administration will also embrace new measures, both short-term and long-term, designed to improve cockpit security. But the White House firmly opposes the idea of letting pilots carry handguns in the cockpit.
On Tuesday, Bush’s administration turned up the pressure on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government, encouraging rebels to overthrow the repressive Islamic regime.
A military attack may not be necessary, according to the administration, if the Taliban turns over Osama bin Laden and dismantles his terrorist network.
Meanwhile, the death count in New York and Washington, D.C. continues to grow.
New York’s estimate of the number of missing persons fell slightly, to 6,347. Recovery workers have found approximately 300 bodies. Of those, 232 have been identified. Those numbers don’t include the 157 people aboard both planes that crashed into the towers. The missing-persons number is compiled from a variety of sources, including 4,136 families who reported their relatives missing.
The death toll in Pennsylvania is 44, and 189 at the Pentagon, including the 64 people who died on American Airlines Flight 77.
The Department of Defense confirmed the identities of four more people who died in the Pentagon attack, The Associated Press reported. That brings the number of victims positively identified to 78, not including one person who died after the attack, due to injuries.
The business world is still feeling the effects of the tragedies as well. Delta Air Lines announced Wednesday it will cut 13,000 jobs and 15 percent of its flight schedule. Delta’s staff cutbacks means the airline industry has laid off almost 100,000 positions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After two days of gains, Wall Street was suffering from a sell-off of midday Wednesday. The Dow Jones average was down close to 100 points. The drop is accredited to investors giving in to economic fears, negative analyst commentary and overall corporate jitters.
