This is a day for recollection and reflection.
Most of us recollect clearly where we were and what we were doing on that tragic day 10 years ago. But, as we remember personal and collective experiences of 9/11, we should also consider what has happened in the last 10 years - and the impact of that day’s events.
For me, that day began with an 8:30 a.m. meeting of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in a State Department building in Washington. Hubbub in the hallways outside the meeting room and the sounds of sirens on the streets outside were hard to ignore and soon we were ordered to evacuate the building. As I caught glimpses of television and began to get fragments of gut-wrenching news, the seriousness of what was happening was apparent.
Like many others, I wastrying to keep up with the latest news while also making contact with family members and colleagues;
likewise, they were trying to reach me, knowing that Washington was under alert and the Pentagon had been hit by one of the hijacked planes. Indeed, there were network news reports that a car bomb exploded outside the State Department. Fortunately, that was not true.
With almost everyone evacuated from government buildings, there was gridlock on the streets. Gradually, the traffic dissipated and the heart of the federal government took on aghostly appearance, with silence broken by the haunting sounds of sirens.
After watching more TV reports in my hotel room, I walked up and down the National Mall, where only police cars were much in evidence. I saw a military helicopter land on the west front of the Capitol and as soon as a few congressional leaders boarded, it was off again, taking them to a secure location.
A bit later I walked toward the Washington Monument, encircled by American flags waving in the breeze on a sunny day. And in the distance I could see the huge column of smoke coming from the Pentagon. Then, as I neared the Tidal Basin, beyond the Jefferson Memorial I could see and even smell the smoke ever more clearly. Later, I saw on television the president’s helicopter flying over the Capitol as he returned to Washingtonand a moment afterward saw that same helicopter fly over my hotel en route to the White House.
When I left Washington almost four days later, when flights resumed and I could get a flight to Arkansas, I was convinced that I was leaving a capital city where bipartisanship would prevail - with a powerful sense of national unity and resolve. And in the following weeks we saw evidence of national solidarity and a willingness to sacrifice.
Sadly, that spirit was squandered. There was no call for sacrifice. Varied factors contributed to a missed opportunity to regenerate the nation and work with others.
The costliest and most damaging action was the invasion of Iraq. It diverted attention from the effort already under way in Afghanistan.
It was based on false pretenses. It was presented as part of a global waron terrorism when, in fact, it diverted vast resources from the fight against terrorism. More than 6,000 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, with more than 45,000 wounded, along with tens of thousands of citizens of those countries. No one really knows how much these expeditions have cost, as they have essentially been funded with a blank check, but estimates range from $1.3 trillion to $3 trillion and growing. Just last week we learned that as much as $60 billion was lost in Iraq and Afghanistan because of lax oversight of private contractors.
And you are kidding yourself if you believe we are not paying the price for this. The war-related expenditures have been a major factor in leading to our current financial mess, greatly distorting our federal budget ledgerand weakening our international leadership.
Meanwhile, important domestic needs, including our infrastructure, have been neglected and we have sidestepped serious challenges such as financial reform and energy policy.
A decade after 9/11 our politics has degenerated disastrously and our economy is in distress.
Look at the abysmal approval ratings of the president and Congress and the disgraceful debtceiling episode.
Until we get beyond the petty politics that prevail today we are only going to compound these problems. As we reflect back to 9/11 and what has happened since, our challenge is to find a way to regenerate the nation, recapture that elusive national unity and reclaim common ground.
HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.
Opinion, Pages 14 on 09/11/2011