Flunking the Lessons of September 11

Col. Kenneth Allard US Army ret. — September 12, 2013

Hiring hundreds of bureaucrats hasn’t made America safer

September 11 was the moment when history finally caught up to America, that sparkling bright day when we lost whatever innocence still remained. Living in McLean, Va., and working as a military analyst for NBC News, I was no better prepared than anyone else. Ironies abounded: Beginning on a snowy morning in February, I had regularly taped running commentaries for an MSNBCdocumentary (remember them?) with a working title of “Attack on Manhattan.” Focused on the unlikely idea of terrorists attacking the United States, it eerily predicted an attack on the twin towers and was scheduled to air later in September.
On that Tuesday, MSNBC was then programming endless footage of the search for missing intern Chandra Levy, interspersed with shark attacks on Florida’s beaches. When the phone rang, I had to admit to an NBC News vice president that, no, I really hadn’t been watching our network that morning. Even the burning tower failed to register as anything more than an unlikely accident until the second plane swooped in like a rampaging shark – and everything became instantly and horribly clear.