It's a pretty well used statement "9/11 Changed Everything". It was certainly a seminal event, but what did it change? In my mind, not much. It was pretty much just a very large scale proof of something I've come to grips with a while ago - we are vulnerable to people who want to kill us for whatever reason.
Did we not know that the United States was vulnerable to terror? Certainly the World Trade Center attack of 1993 showed us that we are vulnerable. Oklahoma City also showed it. We always relied on the seas to protect us from "furriners" bent on attacking us. Problem is, that is only effective when you talk about invasion forces and national armies and so on. In these days of easy overseas travel, stopping a handful of people from entering the United States is more or less a pipe dream. Even if we locked down the airports and ports, there's still untold miles of border with Canada and Mexico that we'd need to cover, as well as the even greater amount of open coastline. No, we can't lock down our borders to those we do not want, at least not completely. If you doubt that, as the agency formerly known as the INS or ask the DEA. They'll tell you.
Did we not know that we were so hated? How could we have missed it? Innumerable terror attacks on Americans in Europe, especially military targets. Perhaps the Iranian Hostage Crisis should have showed us? Khobar Towers? Marine barracks in Lebanon? PanAm 103? Or the pretty much limitless demonstrations against the U.S. that have been a fixture of world events for a few decades now? Did we think that was all just name-calling with no real oomph behind it? That's kind of silly.
I just fail to grasp this meme. What changed? Thousands died, include my wife's mother. Several buildings in Manhattan were destroyed and one building in Washington was damaged. A large crater in Pennsylvania, testimony to heroism by passengers or second thoughts by the pilot. But my outlook on the world? Not a bit changed. Millions of people hate what America stands for, sometimes with good reason, sometimes not. Some of those millions are angry enough and desperate enough to kill and die to show their anger. It's been that way for a very long time.
Things did change - I can't hear an airplane without almost involuntarily looking up. Much to my dismay, I cannot see Middle Eastern men without having some concern flit through my head. And, I do worry about future terrorist acts more than before. But I think that terror can only be addressed with peace, not with violence. Violence begets terror, as sure as the sun rises. We built the machines that make it possible for one man to kill thousands. Now we must reap that bitter harvest.
Maybe everything did change . . . just not like many would have it be. Maybe we were given a lesson that we must treat with fairness and dignity all people, or risk more terror. Maybe we were taught that letting the almighty dollar run rampant over the world will create the sort of hate that causes terror. The attacks of 9/11 were awful and so far beyond the pale of "right" that there is no factor of redemption great enough to ameliorate the act. I do not suggest and will not suggest that this or any other terrorist act was right. But, even in the most awful of things, lessons can be learned, and should be learned.
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