9/11/01: A Day of Infamy That Changed the Course of History

The attack on 9/11 caught America off guard. The prevailing weather conditions up and down an unsuspecting East Coast that day were symbolic of the nation at the time. It was crystal clear and calm, the skies blushing a wondrous shade of blue. We were fresh off two decades marked by peace and prosperity, the final victory in a decades-long cold war, and the demise of an evil empire. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama had famously written that, with the West’s victory in the Cold War, we had reached “The End of History.” Fascism and communism had been vanquished once and for all, and Western liberal democracy had been affirmed as the final and most successful form of government. We had reached the conclusion of “mankind’s ideological evolution.” Most of us saw nothing but good times ahead. 

And then, it happened. Exactly 59 years, 9 months, and 4 days following Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and 37 years, 9 months, and 20 days after the horrifying assassination of John F. Kennedy in broad daylight, the nation was brought to its knees once more by a terrorist attack on the homeland. This time, the assault was not on a distant outpost in the Pacific Ocean, but on the very heart of America’s financial, political, and military institutions. Those of us who were in New York on that unforgettable day have the memories burned into our conscience.

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Like Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Dallas in 1963, 9/11 shattered the nation’s illusions of safety and security in a not-so-brave new world. Pearl Harbor had started a hot war, JFK was murdered at the height of a cold war, and now, with communism and fascism safely disposed of in the ash heap of history, we came to believe the world was finally safe for freedom-loving people. As it turns out, it wasn’t then, isn’t now, and never will be.

This was the bitter lesson learned by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who can rightly share the blame for failing to recognize or act upon the severity of the threat posed by al Qaeda. Clinton evidently had a window of opportunity years before 9/11 to take out Osama bin Laden and didn't. But he warned Bush of the threat during the transition between their administrations. And in a memo just over one month before the attacks, on August 6, 2001, Bush was informed by intelligence sources that bin Laden was determined to strike in the US. Nothing was done. And off we went to 20 years of war in the Middle East.

9/11 and the Enduring Reality of Tyranny

It is legitimate to argue that the peace and prosperity the nation enjoyed after decades of strife caused us, and two presidents, to drop our guard. But the result was the most catastrophic invasion of the homeland in American history, or at least since the War of 1812 when the British burned down the White House. The complacency exemplified in the assertion that we had reached the end of history and secured a permanent victory over tyranny was undoubtedly a contributing factor to underestimating the threat posed by Osama bin Laden until it was too late.

Tyranny has proven to exist in so many forms with such far-reaching tentacles that trying to stop its purveyors is like trying to plug a dozen holes in a boat. Attend to one, and another starts leaking, and on it goes until the boat is listing and ready to sink. The one thing that has endured since the dawn of civilization is fallen human nature. 9/11 taught us that it is not just communism and fascism in their various iterations that we must fear, but tyrants of every shape and size who would strip us of liberties fought for and secured over two and a half centuries. We buried the Soviet Union without a single shot being fired, and with two massive oceans to protect us and a gigantic stockpile of nuclear weapons, we had, at some level, come to believe we were immune from global forces of evil. We did not understand the willingness of rank-and-file Islamist extremists to unquestioningly sacrifice their lives for the cause, believing Allah would richly reward them. But despite the wars we have fought to vanquish such extremism, including the current conflict in Iran, we will never be able to cleanse the heart of the tyrant. 

One of the many lessons we have learned from that fateful day is that tragedy remains merely tragedy if the victims, in this case the entire nation, fail to learn and grow from the experience and trauma. A small window of enlightenment on both sides of the aisle popped up in the aftermath of 9/11, climaxing with something that, like the attacks themselves, had previously been unthinkable: President Bush and his bitter enemy, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, hugging each other following Bush’s speech to the nation nine days after 9/11. It was a rare show of unity and shared grief. Sadly, that solidarity was quickly shattered amidst bitter divisions about war on two fronts and the creation of a surveillance state that has since grown exponentially.

How Is This Even Possible?

While the Pentagon was hit by one plane on 9/11 and another aimed at the White House or US Capitol was commandeered by courageous passengers and ultimately crashed in rural Shanksville, PA, it was the two planes that collapsed the twin towers of the World Trade Center that became the focal point of the attacks. In reviewing the obvious for a moment, it was Islamic extremists who hated our way of life that engineered one of the darkest days in American history. In the weeks, months, or even years following that day of infamy, how many Americans would believe that nearly 25 years later, New York City would elect a Muslim mayor with an entirely different deadly ideology? Socialism has killed more over the years than Islamic terrorists ever have, and it isn't even close. Once again, there's that word: unthinkable.

This is why ignorance of 9/11, among the roughly one-third of the country that was not alive or too young to remember that day clearly, must be cured. It was those youngsters who were most responsible for electing Zohran Mamdani. Would they have done so if they had experienced the truth and consequences of 9/11? We didn’t expect the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. We didn't expect Lee Harvey Oswald, or whoever you believe assassinated JFK in Dallas. We didn’t expect airplanes to turn into weapons of mass destruction on 9/11. And we certainly didn’t expect historically destructive socialism to rear its head. The lesson is that threats to our way of life arise not just from outside the country, but inside; not just from weapons, but from perverse ideology; not just when we are vulnerable, but when we appear invincible. It all boils down to one essential conclusion about which we as a free people must all agree: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.