For those of us who are in public life, it is hard to believe it has already been a quarter-century since terrorist attacks destroyed two towers at New York City, damaged the Pentagon, and — thanks to the courageous resistance of passengers — forced the crashing of a plane in Pennsylvania that was bound for the United States Capitol building.
The attack was an extraordinary achievement that our intelligence services clearly had not considered. People said there was a failure of imagination, but Tom Clancy had already written a novel, “Debt of Honor” in which a commercial jetliner had been flown into the Capitol during a joint session of Congress. The attacks on September 11, 2001 should not have come as a great shock, but for its disastrous results.
Nineteen Islamist hijackers killed 2,977 citizens.
During the initial period of shock and outrage, national leaders made broad commitments to defeat our enemies. President George W. Bush talked about an axis of evil in his 2002 State of the Union address identifying it with Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
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