Questions I can't answer

As the day wears on I can't shake questions that keep coming up and I can't answer them. Mainly questioning myself, but I can't help but wonder.

Had I been on Flight 93 would I have charged the cabin with the other passengers?

Had I been in one of the towers or the Pentagon after the planes struck would I have charged into the flames to help those who couldn't find their way out?

I'd like to think I know the answers to those questions. That the answer would be yes, yet I pray I never find out, that the situation never arises.

I've seen this question asked several times today. Do you feel safer now than before the attacks of September 11th, 2001? People are answering yes and no when I can't believe the question is being asked. How, how can anyone feel that safe again? It's not that I'm promoting mass hysteria, but prior to September 11th a majority of us lived in a state of blissful ignorance.

I fall back to conversations with one of my professors from college whose family fled Iran instead of dying at the hands of Radical Muslims. He, and his family, are themselves Muslims. I remember him talking about extremists long before we were attacked and I wonder why nobody, including myself, listened.

I wonder if there can be peace and safety while Islamic states still exist. The consensus seems to be no. With people pointing to the open scars still in New York, the daily bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan and versus from the Quran to prove their point. I can't help but think of friends from college who were Muslims who were and still are just as outraged as I am at the attacks.

I can't help but wonder if any of this could have been prevented. Had Carter erased Iran from the map or had Regan handled the Iran-Contra Affair differently or had the first President Bush dethroned Saddam or had President Clinton sent cruise missiles flying or had the current President Bush launched pre-emptive strikes would anything have turned out differently?

As much as I think about the questions I can't come up with concrete answers. There's always a "but" or a "what if" and nothing seems to suffice.