You see the news today: CNN is airing a real-time re-telecast of the footage on that fateful day in September of 2001. Today, there are people remembering the moment that tragedy struck the heart of our nation. Families remembering their loved ones whose lives were extinguished on the 11th. Our nation’s hearts collectively turned to New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. and watched, lived vicariously through telecasts, media coverage and the internet…
Five years later, we have movies—namely World Trade Center and United 93 that showcase the fallacy of our government, its bureaucracy and the ubiquitous lack of accountability. No one wanted to make any immediate decisions in the sake of being the fall guy should finger pointing begin at a later date. Everything had to go up top to administrators, all the while the proverbial buck kept on being passed…
We had intelligence. We had information. We had enough to go on, to prevent this attack. We could have saved 3,000 lives that morning only if there were quicker plans of action, somebody wanting to take accountability and pursue necessary means to prevent a catastrophe of this magnitude. They say hindsight is 20/20; this writer can’t think of a clearer case in point, especially when we now know that critical steps could have gone towards preventing that fateful day from unfolding the way it did.
Our indefinite thirst for accurate information, our high regard for civilian life, our need to have accountability in the face of adversity—while all of these are strong and admirable traits for decision making in times of pressure, all of these factors conspired and gelled into a catalyst for the Towers, the Pentagon, a rural town in Pennsylvania, and 3,000 lives of everyday people. People like you and me, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandparents, grandchildren, friends all alike received the brunt of the impacting force that day. In a metaphoric sense, the loss of those 3,000 lives will always serve as a grim reminder of our government’s lack of preparation, absence of strength in leadership, and accountability.
Today is a day of remembrance, of reckoning, and of resolve. Five years ago, we experienced the learning of a lesson at the expense of 3,000 lives and an innumerable number of related families. We learned a lesson of the need for strong willed, fast-acting leadership, preparation, anticipation, and information.
What we need now is a leader with cojones made of steel. We need a leader that will appoint high-level individuals that are not afraid to be accountable in the face of adversity (recurring theme: Hurricane Katrina). We need a leader that will remember the tragic results of the 11th and vow to do all that is possible so that our nation will never have to experience a heart-rending dagger to our sense of patriotism, confidence, citizenship & love for our fellow citizens. We need a leader that will be omnipresent and omniscient, always ready to react, without first thinking of personal results, without thinking of poll percentages, without thinking of popular favor, without thinking of any sense of politics while under emergency-level pressure.
We need a leader that will act on the trust vested in him/her by our nation, and act accordingly.
History as we know it could have been different had such a leader been in place.
Remember the 11th. Remember it always, because those 3,000 souls could have easily been ourselves, our family members, our friends, our colleagues.
Remember today, and remember the sense of emotion you feel each time you see a raw, intimate, personal account of that day.
To quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “[the 11th] is a date which will live in infamy.”
Remember.
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You write:
“We had intelligence. We had information. We had enough to go on, to prevent this attack. We could have saved 3,000 lives that morning only if there were quicker plans of action, somebody wanting to take accountability and pursue necessary means to prevent a catastrophe of this magnitude.”
Can you elaborate a little bit on how we could possibly have prevented a group of terrorist bent on wreaking havoc and killing as many people as possible from not having reached their goal? Granted, with all the security we have in airports today, it may make it harder to allow for a repeat but again, the improvements in airport security is just one of the consequences of the tragic events of September 11. I’m not so convinced we could have avoided this catastrophe at this time.
That being said, I agree with everything else you said and wrote.
There are many instances where this administration could have done something to prevent 9/11 but chose not to:
uhh…
We had an offer to have bin Laden’s head on a platter but Clinton/Berger politely declined, mainly because Clinton was too occupied with getting blow jobs from Monica and using her as a cigar humidifier.
Just remember:
1993: WTC Attack
1996: Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia
1998: Dual Embassy Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
2000: Bombing of the USS Cole
All of them were done by the al Qaeda organization under Clinton’s watch, and you choose to blame GW Bush for this attack which happened only 8 months into his presidency?
And believe me, NO ONE could have possibly fathom them taking airliners and flying them into buildings.
Actually, there were scenarios being practiced by the Pentagon on how to prevent the hijackings of aircraft by terrorist elements. You need to do research on that score of how on the morning of 9/11 that the Pentagon were planning emergency scenarios of planes crashing into buildings.
Ohh, okay. It’s just that I read somewhere that when GW Bush got that briefing in August of 2001 about possible terrorist activity involving airliners, they were more concerned of hijackings, rather than having them fly them into buildings.
But doesn’t your assertion belie your point–that the GW Bush administration did nothing to address these concerns?
No, they did nothing to address these concerns, and if you had read the 9/11 report, you would have known of the numerous instances where the Bush Administration failed to take terrorism seriously before 9/11/06.
George W. Bush did receive the August 6th PDB that stressed that bin Laden was determined to attack the United States, but as I recall, he did nothing about it, and was at the ranch for an entire month on vacation.
Please. That was only a two-page document with old reporting.
Far too often, I see people blaming Bush for the action of terrorists. Yes, that’s right- I am actually blaming the _terrorists_ for killing our Americans.
We not only need a leader with all the qualities you just described, but also a leader with the ability to think critically and intelligenly, and is not a puppet nor embroiled in financial relationships with companies that profited greatly post- 9/11. Someone not so, as Sacha so succinctly put it, “bent on wreaking havoc and killing as many people as possible.”
Let us also recongize that the cause of middle-eastern sentiment that led ultimately to having a group of terrorists passionate enough to hijack 4 commercial jets for a purpose that we’re now all familiar with. We can only point to our own country’s behavior, meddling and mucking about with the middle east since the 1950’s, if not the 1920’s.
-Jesse
Luke,
I think you’re subtly making a good point here. GW Bush does fit the characteristics of the leader you described here.
After all, we did invade Afghanistan and had them on the run. In the past 5 years, we’ve captured/killed almost every major terrorist associated with al Qaeda. Also, in the past 5 years post-9/11, we never had another terrorist attack on our soil.
In all seriousness, I’d like to ask you two questions.
If Al Gore was president, would we have had this attack?
[Serious answer: yes: 9/11 was planned 5 years hence.]
If Al Gore was President, what would have been his response?
I personally feel that he would have set up a presidential commission to analyze the attacks, find out why they did it, and try to appease the terrorists as much as they can. Maybe sign a peace treaty or two.
Actually, you forgot the anthrax attacks that happened in 2002. So, yes, we have been attacked since 9/11.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear… I meant foreign attacks on US soil. There’s no evidence to suggest that the anthrax attacks were done by al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization for that matter.
And we still have not done anything to track down that anthrax killer in case he or she strikes again. For all we know, that anthrax killer could have been Al Qaeda. I’m still surprised that not enough attention is being paid to this.
feh I guess to the administration attempting to track Al-Qaida is more dramatic than anthrax. I’ve noticed there’s been a huge difference in postal service. there’s less mailboxs here in NYC and the postal workers everywhere wear blue gloves. least they’ve taken all precautions and I would think it’s a small scale opposed to global manhunt.
jesse - about the puppet president with many friends of his family in the administration and top companies; arent they throwbacks from the 70s and 80s?
Blah blah blah…
Here’s the truth about 9-11:
EVERYBODY ******">****** UP. EVERYBODY.
That’s it.
“Remember the 11th. Remember it always, because those 3,000 souls could have easily been ourselves, our family members, our friends, our colleagues.”
Well said, Oscar. And I think that (remembering) should be true for any horrific event on earth - Katrina, the genocide in Rwanda, the current situation in Sudan, the list unfortunately goes on and on. How many people have suffered under these circumstances. We could be victims of such on any day. Scary… and very sad.
Beautifully written.
First of all, I’ll never forget that day. But why do we need to mark the 9/11 as our Remembernace Day when curse will always remain for 9/11. Why was 9/11 chosen for the date of the attacks? This issue has been debated since. Some people believed that two “ones” are symbolic reasons for the attacks. Or was it just a coincidence? You decide. I read somewhere about the two “ones.” Here I’ll list a few examples that I remmeber.
1. Two Twins Towers of the World Trade Centers were seen as a symbol of two “ones” in 9/11.
2. The 9/11 allured to the emergency number, 911. It’s interesting to note that on that date many New York firemen and rescue vehicles were out of the state for training purposes.
3. There were some historical echo on that certain month and day, Sept 11.
* Battle of Vienna – Sept 11, 1683
* The Mandate of Palestine - Sept 11, 1922
* The beginning of the Pentagon construction - Sept 11, 1941
* The Islamic calendar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar
* The 11th anniversary of Gerorge Bush’s 1990 address to the United Nations
4. The United States Congress was back in session on that day where the Capitol or White House was rumored to be the target for the attack by the fourth plane that crashed in PA. Was the fourth plane actually intended for either target?? We won’t know for the fact!
5. The 9/11 was referring to some type of Koran version. The number might be of some religious significance to the hijackers. Surah 9:111 promises heavenly gardens to those who sacrifice and die in Allah’s way. I looked up in the Koran on the Interent and found this 9:111 version below.
“9:111 Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. Who fulfilleth His covenant better than Allah ? Rejoice then in your bargain that ye have made, for that is the supreme triumph.”
Beside Sept 11, it was also interesting to note that the numbers, two “ones” and 911 reappeared 4 years later for another terrorist attack in Madrid. It was March 11, 2004, therefore there was 911 days between the two events. EERIE? Because of the history, I wonder if we will have another attack on any two “ones” day. Anyway, do you know of any more 911 or two “ones”?