9 11 – Thirteen Years Ago We Vowed “Never Forget.” But do we still mean it? Dr. Robin McFee
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/9-11-thirteen-years-ago-we-vowed-never-forget-but-do-we-still-mean-it
“If September 11, 2001, was a wake-up call, clearly America has fallen back to sleep.”
Stephen Flynn
As we come up on the 13th anniversary of 9-11 we should take a moment to think about the significance of that fateful day, the courage displayed by average citizens and professional responders alike, and the legacy they have left us. Have we been good stewards of their sacrifice, their memory, that legacy?
Some might argue that rebuilding a tower, and placing memorial fountains at Ground Zero, as well as creating the 9-11 Museum are all evidence of our gratitude. No argument there. But it must go further.
For many of us, 9 – 11 has always been very personal, as thoughts turn to the friends and colleagues we lost that fateful day, after having made the ultimate sacrifice. We owe their memory much more than a passing thought. 9-11 reminds us of the work of preparedness we embarked upon, the firefighters and responders to Ground Zero we treated, and the resolve with which we all pledged “never again on my watch.” That was the motto for so many of us who headed various forms of terrorism, bioweapons, or general preparedness enterprises.
Perhaps that was because some of us remembered all too well the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. It was not the random act of madmen. It should have been the wake-up call that America and the West were facing an adversary unlike any we had ever encountered. Instead it was all too readily forgotten. Recognizing the effort, and resolve it took to mount such a concerted attack on the United States in 1993 and again in 2001 gives us pause to think about our own efforts and resolve to counter future attacks.
Unfortunately it took the second and fatal attack of the World Trade Center to spark, albeit it seems in hindsight a fleeting recognition that 9-11 was just the beginning. Even with the Boston bombing on 4-15-13 as a reminder, we as our nation retain a persistent disbelief about the reality of facing an organized, dedicated, resource rich, and hate-filled enemy committed to punishing, taming, perhaps even conquering the West. In spite of three loud, high profile, and deadly attacks in 21 years, we as a society don’t seem to fully grasp the notion that not everyone thinks as we do, believes in what we hold sacred, shares the same goals in life, or wants to peacefully coexist in a ‘live and let live world.’
September 11th – now euphemistically referred to as simply “9-11” was one of those “do you remember where you were?” moments, sometimes called “flash bulb” moments – events of great importance, where time seems to stand still, and where memory is as clear, as near perfect in recollection as if the occurrence had happened seconds ago, instead of years earlier. More often than not, they are tragedies, like the assassination of JFK or the Challenger Shuttle disaster.
A person is fortunate indeed who has only one flash bulb moment in their life. Unfortunately we have had too many similar events in a lifetime – the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, Oklahoma 1995, the attacks of 9-11, and the marathon bombing of 4-15. And it is very likely we will have another similar attack on the homeland in the not distant future. To suggest otherwise is wishful thinking.
Looking around in church, on the streets, in public gatherings, visiting friends and their families it is sometimes difficult to fathom that for many of our fellow citizens, especially those who are younger than thirty, 9-11 was an abstraction, not personal. Some barely remember 9-11. It happened nearly half a lifetime ago, when they were in school and where the chaos of that day, the angst that most of their parents, teachers, and adult friends were experiencing was somehow otherworldly, and not part of their daily consciousness, nor was it to inform their world-view, except of course if someone close to them was injured or killed in New York City, or the United Flight that crashed in Pennsylvania or the Pentagon.
As we approach September 11th, for many of us there is a solemnity to the day. A time to reflect on what we have lost, what we have learned and what are we doing to prevent such a day of carnage from happening again? To be sure, Boston 4-15 should have been another wake-up call to the US. But those of us in the preparedness arena have long recognized the world of competing demands where daily challenges take precedence. Our own success through the last two centuries has informed that mindset in many ways. A dangerous world was an abstraction to Main Street USA, where bad things happened to other people, in other countries, not in America or to Americans, even after two horrific mass casualty attacks. Our centuries long success has imbued us with an almost invulnerability. Our belief that oceans protect us is dated. Denouncing or denying the existence of a growing fifth column of Islamists within the US is a threat unchecked. With a 1000 mile long “welcome mat” that is our southern border, where we can’t even keep starving kids out, let alone well armed cartels, or the likely growing terror cells using the Mexico Texas, Mexico Arizona people pipeline, the US has never been so vulnerable to attack.
Yet for the increasing number of assaults the US has had to our homeland, our citizens here and abroad, and our interests internationally, there seems to be a refusal to accept the clear and present danger we face. Perhaps our inherent decency prevents us from making the hard call. Our enemies use that against us, and turn our laws as well as sense of fair play against us. Political correctness has allowed numerous Islamic groups to limit law enforcement and intelligence efforts to curtain radical Islamist influence in the US. Our own President won’t even use the words Islam, radical Islam or anything remotely similar in describing the threat we face. He and his team have all but expunged it from the official preparedness and homeland security lexicon, preferring instead man caused disaster or other similarly meaningless phrases. This in spite of the fact it is Islamic Jihad that has threatened the West, the US, Christians and Jews, women and children.
How on earth are we ever going to fight an adversary our leaders are too timid to name?
Perhaps at the heart of this denial is related to a question I asked a friend when Obama continued to give moral equivalence and political cover to Hamas at the expense of Israel. Simply put, what motivation commends Jews in 2014 to vote democrat and support liberal politicians who readily sell out Israel and perennially support her enemies? His answer was simple and profound; “American Jews aren’t afraid enough.” Perhaps that is the crux of our preparedness inertia and 9-11 amnesia – Americans just aren’t afraid enough. Unless you see the carnage or result of such evil, perhaps it remains unimaginable and better left ignored. But ignoring evil is not the same as banishing it.
This is not to suggest fear mongering or scare tactics. But our leaders have a responsibility to put political gain behind patriotism and homeland security. POTUS needs to convey that the likelihood of our nation and our interests falling prey to ISIS or a franchisee of Al Qaeda, ISIL or one of the several factions operating here and abroad is real, and to enlist the commitment, support and efforts of our citizens to work together – regardless of ideology or party. I’m hallucinating. Obama is not a war-time leader. He was barely a peace time leader.
“America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on US soil” – was the conclusion of the Council on Foreign Relations. That was their opinion several years ago. They don’t need to amend their conclusion!
Several years ago a senior member of TEDAC (Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center) gave me a challenge coin. It is among the most valued gifts during my years in the terrorism preparedness arena for reasons I’ll leave unsaid. On the front under the Eagle and TEDAC logo are these simple and powerful words – “NEVER FORGET.” Anyone who has experienced 9-11 or the anthrax events of 2001, or worked in the field during these last 13 years lives by those marching orders – “Never Forget.” We can’t. Our adversaries never sleep or let their guard down. We can’t afford to either.
Radical Islam declared war on the United States in 1979, and we flinched. Again they attacked in the 1980’s and we barely pushed back. Then they brought it to our home soil in 1993 and we forgot. In 2001 they leveled a section of our grandest city, and we forgot, again. In 2013 at a public event they attacked, and we forgot. Will we be die from terminal amnesia? Or death by a thousand cuts? How many close calls do we have left before another major attack occurs on US soil? It is not as if our adversaries haven’t warned us. Yet we persistently forget, and continually fail to believe there is an evil in this world that we must prepare for, even if it means inconvenience and sacrifice.
Radical Islam took the fight to our doorstep, to our home. And we have yet to fully grasp the implications of 9-11 even 13 years later. Only now after two Americans have been beheaded, where hundreds of Christians have been tortured, some even crucified, and many killed at the hands of ISIS, has the average American caught a glimpse of what most of us in the terrorism arena have recognized for many years – we are in for the fight of our lives, and it will be a long war, which we can lose.
In fact, up until the recently televised beheadings of two Americans at the hands of radical Islamists, most people in the US, which includes both the average citizen and leaders of preparedness agencies, especially during the Obama years, and with few exceptions, have succumbed to 9-11 amnesia. James Carville’s exhortation “it’s the economy stupid” is as timely today as it was when he ran President Clinton’s campaign; Americans have serious financial challenges – a lethargic economy, personal incomes continuing to decline, an erosion of our middle class. The daily fears about tangible concerns such as mortgage payments, medical bills, college funds, car repairs, food, and similar often overshadow the more intangible risks of terrorism. Some of our fellow citizens fail to connect ISIS killing abroad as a threat to us in our own neighborhoods.
In some ways ISIS may have reawakened the sleeping giant. Up until recently, too many Americans have been unconcerned about global events, preferring among federal budget priorities that more government resources go towards entitlements and less on preparedness. It was an easy sell given the percentage of our population receiving financial support from Uncle Sam, resulting in the folks readily being lulled into the political magician’s misdirection that only domestic affairs matter. Swords into plowshares against the backdrop of a world that, according to President Obama was safer because of his actions. Of course as his presidency wears on, and the willing suspension of disbelief withers, only the most indoctrinated or intoxicated continue buying the Obama illusion. And with the increasing recognition that Obama’s World is now looking more like Wayne’s World, or more accurately Neville Chamberlain’s world, we find ourselves facing a renewed level of threats. Obama’s feckless, “whack-a-mole” foreign policy, near perennial announcements describing his budget cuts to the military, and early pronouncements that military options without international coalitions are largely off the table – these all have emboldened the many Jihadist and radical Islamist factions internationally and in the United States. Result? Every citizen is a target.
The inconvenient truth is simple, unpleasant perhaps, but unavoidable if we as a society wish to survive. Our enemies need to be destroyed, or neutralized, sidelined, and incapacitated from an ability to cause harm, not ‘managed’ as President Obama has publicly announced as his strategy, well at least last week’s strategy. Radical Islamists will only back off when our resolve is greater than theirs, and when our strength is more than visible, it is relentlessly applied to defeat them, here and abroad. Defeat should be interpreted as killed, not managed. We may not get all of them, but we can certainly make it much more difficult and painful to attack the US and our citizens than the current strategy of “denounce then golf.”
But will we, to a person, recognize just how vast, how powerful, and how extensive the threat is against the West, before it is too late?
Make no mistake – our adversaries are fully committed, including being willing to kill or die for the cause. Can you ask anything more of loyalist?
Our adversaries are not conflicted about who their enemies are. They are not squeamish about killing. The moral distinction that we in the West confer to distinguish as well as protect citizens from combatants is not something our adversaries concern themselves. To the radical Islamists that have declared war upon us, everyone in the West is a legitimate target. What seems contrary to decency from our value system is, in their bloody calculus, a moral victory for the cause. The targeting of citizens is prioritized and treated as highly valuable. Our enemies know us better than we know ourselves and certainly much better than we understand them! The radical Islamists who will again bring another 9-11 to our shores unless we collectively ‘man up’ as a society, will preferentially attack civilian targets because they know it disturbs our sensibilities. They know in the West citizens are sacrosanct, and considered essential to protect, making their deaths more the insult to our society than attacks on the military, as grievous as their deaths would be. Terrorists leverage that reality very deftly.
For all the hubris, the street-corner bravado dismissing radical Islam, ISIS, post Bin Laden Al Qaeda that President Obama and his political supporters have portrayed to the American public, the cold hard reality is very simple – we are not up against an adversary where diplomacy is a therapeutic option. To suggest otherwise, to continue with the notion that we are somehow to blame, or that we have yet to find the right ‘common ground’ or the perennial clarion call of progressives “give peace a chance,” or discovered a workable diplomatic solution – all these will guarantee is the need to order more body bags, because we will lose if this is the measure of our resolve.
Many of us have wondered aloud if we went to battle during World War II with the same national resolve or concern about our enemies that we have had during the Obama presidency, the United States and Allied Forces very likely would have lost, and I would be writing this article in German.
One thing I’ve learned on the back streets of the West Bank, in Gaza, in many other similar places where various forms of terrorism are practiced from Ireland to Africa to the Middle East, and it is a simple axiom- the most committed usually wins.
Until we dispense with the nonsense that we can negotiate with radical Islamists, or for that matter any of the serious adversaries on the world scene – China, Russia, Iran or ISIS, without demonstrating a willingness to fight, to push back against, and to punish their bad behaviors, we will lose, and we will lose big.
“Never Forget” is more than tag line, or reminder to remember those who were shamelessly murdered by radical Islamists, but words that underscore a commitment to honor those who selflessly sacrificed their lives to rescue and protect others. It is, or should be our battle cry as we unify our efforts to thwart an enemy who will not go away gently into the good night.
Americans made a pledge on that fateful day in 2001 – from President Bush to the average citizen – we vowed to unify as a nation, to come together for a common purpose and said in one voice “9-11 Never Forget.” That was a long time ago. But we meant it! And for several years we worked to keep the pledge. Times have changed. Has our national spirit, our resolve, our common purpose changed, too?
9 11 – Thirteen Years Ago We Vowed “Never Forget.” But do we still mean it?
Dr. Robin McFee, MPH, FACPM, FAACT, is medical director of Threat Science – and nationally recognized expert in WMD preparedness, who consults with government agencies, corporations and the media. Dr. McFee is the former director and cofounder of the Center for Bioterrorism Preparedness (CB PREP) and bioweapons – WMD adviser to the Domestic Security Task Force, numerous law enforcement and corporate entities after 911, as well as pandemic advisor to federal, state and local agencies, and corporations during the anthrax events, SARS, Avian and swine flu epidemics. Dr. McFee is the former chair of the Global Terrorism Council of ASIS International, and is a member of the US Counterterrorism Advisory Team. She has delivered over 500 invited lectures since 9-11, created graduate level courses on WMD preparedness for several universities, authored more than 100 articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.
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