The amphibious assault vessel was built with 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The ship, which can carry up to 800 Marines, is on its way to New York where it will be formally commissioned in early November.The article in the CS Monitor finds opinions ranging from the poignant to the profane. I'm not sure myself how I feel about turning plowshares into swords.
It seems in many ways a continuation of the idea promulgated in the days and months following September 2001 that the nation was on a permanent war footing. That's never been part of our character (even in our genocidal, slaveholding heyday). We're the land of rebirth and plenty, not Mother Courage's scorched earth:
They say the war will stop soon. How would it? I ask. And no one can answer me. The King and the Pope are mortal enemies, their Faith is different. They must go for each other till one of them drops dead, neither of them can relax till then. Even so they can't get on with it. Why not? The Emperor is in the way, and they both have something against him. They're not going to fight each other till they're half dead so he can fall on both of 'em! No, they're banding together against the Emperor so he'll drop dead first and they can go for each other. Someone once offered me five hundred guilders for the wagon. I didn't take it. My Eilif, wherever he may be, thought I had taken it and cried all night.Mother Courage's only question about the WTC steel being hammered into the ship might be what price did it go for?
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