What War Means
Dimitri K. Simes
The tragic terrorist attacks of September 11 are likely to have aprofound impact on American policy at home and abroad, not tomention on the American way of life. However, it is less thancertain that September 11 will truly become a transformationalevent with enduring consequences. Much depends on subsequentdevelopments, such as possible new terrorist attacks against theUnited States and the duration and relative success of the war onterrorism. Nevertheless, to ensure that September 11 has theappropriate impact on America, we have to be honest with ourselvesin assessing what went wrong. The purpose of such honesty is not tojustify the unjustifiable, to develop sympathy for our enemies, orto blame America for its own victimization. On the contrary, ourgoal in evaluating the past must be to ensure that it is we whowill shape the future.
A process of intense introspection is clearly in order, and severalquestions must be answered. At the broadest level, how could theUnited States have fallen so far, so quickly? In the space of onelate summer morning, Americans were forced to move from celebratingU.S. global political, military and economic pre-eminence and theadvancing triumph of democracy worldwide, to confronting a shockingvulnerability. More narrowly, how could 19 terrorists havepenetrated four layers of defenses designed to protect U.S.citizens-by receiving visas, organizing a substantial conspiracyundetected from within America, carrying crude but deadly weaponsthrough airport security, and seizing control of four hugepassenger jets? And what could motivate people to sacrifice theirlives to kill Americans? How could they have been unaffected byliving among us? How could they have failed to develop any empathyfor their future victims, to say nothing of some level ofidentification with the American people?
