9/11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists, hijacked 4 commercial jetliners and turned them toward targets chosen for destruction. Two of the planes, loaded with fuel and passengers, were flown at full speed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the financial district of New York City. The buildings burst into flame and then collapsed, killing thousands. A third terrorist crew crashed their plane into the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. military in Arlington, Virginia.

The hijackers of the fourth airliner apparently intended to hit another target in the Washington, DC area, but passengers on the plane realized what was happening and fought back. This airplane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

The 19 men who carried out the hijackings came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab states. They were affiliated with the al-Qaeda network, a radical Islamic group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and dedicated to waging a holy war against the United States. The targets they chose to destroy perfectly symbolized U.S. financial, political, and military power.

Years in the making, the attacks in New York and Washington constituted the first major foreign assault on the continental United States since 1814, when the British army invaded Washington, DC, and burned the White House. More people were killed on U.S. soil on September 11, 2001 than on any day since the American Civil War. The attack killed nearly 3,000 people, and unified the American public as never before. Nations all across the globe sent their sincere condolences and vowed to stop the flow of terrorism.

 

 

After 9/11/2001, there has been an ongoing effort to minimize the attack, to pretend that it just wasn't that bad, and to argue that the U.S. overreacted. The contention that the U.S. overreacted to a devastating surprise attack on its greatest city is both idiotic and historically ignorant. Far from overreacting, the U.S. unleashed a limited, measured war in Afghanistan. It even identified elements within Afghanistan that it could work with, rather than holding the entire country collectively responsible for hosting Al Qaeda -- which would have been standard procedure in earlier eras. Even with the desire for vengeance fresh, and with America largely united behind the president, we did not exert anywhere near the full power of the U.S. military. Instead we took great pains to protect the innocent and minimize collateral damage.

No, we did not overreact, but that’s just my opinion.

I brought this topic to the attention of my friend Melanie, she had a different point of view. This is what she had to say, “Yes. I would say borrowing nearly a trillion dollars to wage two wars because of 9/11 is over-reacting and ruining our economy in the process is over-reacting. I would say limiting freedoms is over-reacting. I would say demonizing a faith is over-reacting. I would say weakening our alliances is over-reacting. Al-Qaeda had one major goal and it was not the conquest of the United States... it was that our economy would be ruined by perpetual war.

She believes that we are overreacting.

 

Are we safer after 9/11? "Yes and no".

“Not really,” said Harvey Kushner, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Long Island University. “Certain protocols haven’t been put in place that would make us safer,” he continued. “A variety of different venues in which people travel, such as trains and buses and roads, as well as power grids, are still vulnerable.”

He added: “We should be thankful we haven’t had another attack on American soil. We have had a number of incidents. But that doesn’t mean we’re still not in the cross hairs of significant people who want to do us harm.”

 

Not everyone agrees on the state of our safety today.

 

Vast improvements have been made to security since 9/11, said Frank DiMarino, dean of Kaplan University’s School of Criminal Justice and Fire Science. Many of the nation’s law enforcement agencies have changed their focus to fight terrorism, he added. He noted the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as the creation of the Fusion Centers.

DiMarino added: “There will always be threats and vulnerabilities in public transportation, including commercial air travel, ports, cities and other venues where there are large groups of people.”

John Dougherty, Bucks County’s emergency management coordinator, said, “We are better prepared than when we were (before 9/11).”

He stressed the increased communication among local, state and federal agencies. He also explained that, while emergency management agencies were around long before 9/11, their role has become much more crucial since the terrorist attacks 10 years ago.

“More agencies joined the task force to help plan and prevent something,” Dougherty said. “There’s been more of a partnership and a better dialogue, which I think has helped us greatly.” Kushner, the Long Island University professor, warned that the American public has returned to a level of complacency since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But, he added, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have been weakened since 9/11 and are less organized than they once were.

 

 As far as who is winning the war on terror”, Americans' views on who is winning the war on terrorism are almost identical now to where they were in October 2001. Americans are roughly evenly split, 46% to 42%, between the view that the U.S. and its allies are winning the war on terrorism and the view that neither the U.S. nor the terrorists are winning. Despite the similarity between views now and 10 years ago, there has been a great deal of change in the intervening time, including points in 2002 and 2003 when two-thirds of the public felt that the U.S. was winning.