Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed 2,986, shocked the world and altered our sense of domestic security. For the victims’ families and, indeed, all Americans and allies, life can never be the same.
Most of the flags that appeared on our porches in 2001 have been put away, but Osama bin Laden remains at large, armed and dangerous, his terror taken to Spain, Britain, Iraq, Indonesia and elsewhere.
As we recall the devastation that the 19 hijackers inflicted with four airliners, the sorrow is suddenly intertwined with a different challenge to domestic security, wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast less than two weeks ago.
The Sept. 11 attacks united the nations of the world against terrorism, but briefly. In 2003, U.S. retaliation was diverted to Iraq, where 130,000 Americans mark this sad anniversary on the front lines of a war that has seen many deaths in a cause that is tangential at best in its relationship to the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Sept. 11 exposed gaping weaknesses in American defenses, including the failure of federal agencies to share intelligence and the failure to heed numerous warnings – “the system is blinking red” – that some sort of attack was imminent. The sneak attack gave rise to legislation that diminished civil liberties as the Bush administration expanded executive power in the name of anti-terrorism. Congress is debating whether to curtail some of the new authority, or to make the changes permanent.
Homeland security became a top priority as multiple government agencies were consolidated into one mega-department and the Colorado-based Northern Command took on new military responsibilities. Billions have been doled out to state and local governments to beef up police forces and emergency response capabilities.
Yet the sluggish response to Katrina – no sneak attack here – leaves a vivid impression that government has not made adequate progress in its ability to react to the sudden destruction or confusion of a disaster, whatever its source.
Sept. 11 saw countless examples of heroism and sacrifice by passengers on a doomed airliner and by firefighters and police amid the smoldering ruins. President Bush resolved to bring al-Qaeda to justice, but Bin Laden taunts America in grainy videos, and the dead still cry out for justice.
