During Day 2 of the 100-hour initiative, Pelosi and Co. vow to "enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001" (Kos, 2006). This is a desperate attempt to provide answers for the victims' families and American public, but it all suggests that there is so much more that we need to do to protect ourselves, and confront acknowledged perpetrators like Osama bin Laden, than what we have to show for our collective efforts after 5+ years.
The first thing that all Americans should do is obtain a copy of the 9/11 Commission Report. The good news is that you don't have to buy it at Borders anymore; it's the size of Baltimore's Yellow Pages anyhow. The bad news? I have yet to meet anybody who has actually read it all; I certainly haven't. The worse news? It's 585 pages. The hope is that those of us who like to discuss current international policies, wartime strategies, and homeland securi
ty must read chapters 11-13:References Cited11: Foresight--And Hindsight
12: What to Do--A Global Strategy
13: How to Do It--A different Way of Organizing the Government(See 9/11 Commission, 2006)1
The Commission convened in 2002 to explore the events of 9/11 and to try to take a proactive stance on future issues of both terrorism in the United States and a forced preparedness of the U.S. government to create and manage action plans (consider it a non-Hurricane Katrina response that the Commission was looking for: something organized, civilized, and that had the best interests in all citizens at stake).
Here's a frightening sidenote: "at best we can determine, neither in 2000 or in the first 8 months of 2001 did any polling organization in the United States think the subject of terrorism sufficiently on the minds of the public to warrant asking a question about it in a major national survey" (9/11 Commission Report, 2004, p. 341). Yet now we are innundated with the latest terrorist newsclips, notes, "white powder in the mail" fears, and terrorism "threat levels." We have become so inundated with terror in our vocabulary since 9/11 (but it didn't start there, right? I remember home-bred terrorism with Timothy McVeigh and international terrorism with the strike on the U.S.S. Cole and the barracks in Beruit) that we haven't stopped to wonder what the governent has done to address the concrete issues presented in the commission report. Moneys spent for preparedness in major U.S. cities, like New York City, have been cut (see The New York Times' "Homeland Security Grants to New York Slashed" ); Pelosi herself notes that
Five years after 9/11, we still do not have 100 percent screening at our ports, we still do not have a mandate for chemical and nuclear plants to safeguard them, we still have not brought anywhere near what we need to of fissile material that poses the biggest danger to the safety of the American people. Our ports are not secure, our borders are not secure, and our country is at risk. We could be safer. [Pelosi, 2006]It's sound advice to listen to, especially from an elected government official who's willing to take responsibility to fix these tangible problems. But it's only a beginning, and it takes time. How much time do we really have? What's the alternative?
9/11 Commission. (2004). 9/11 Commission Report. Accessed November 10, 2006, from http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
Kos. (2006). The Pelosi Agenda: Draining the Swamp. Accessed November 6, 2006, from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/6/11395/3029
Pelosi, N. (2006]. Pelosi: Five Years After 9/11, We Are Not As Safe As We Should Be. Accessed November 9, 2006, from http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Sept06/5_Years_Later.html
Note 1. 9/11 Commission Report image from www.alumnireview.queensu.ca/spotlight
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