“A decade after 9/11, the nation is not yet prepared for a truly catastrophic disaster.”
— Tenth Anniversary Report Card: The Status of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations
In the coming week, leading up to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, we’ll hear a lot about how America has changed. We’ll hear personal stories of survivors and heroes. Of those who lost loved ones and of those who still suffer.
And we will wonder if all the efforts of the last decade — the increasingly personal friskings at the airport, the stepped-up security at work and myriad other security changes — have really made Americans safer.
A decade without another major attack on American soil would lead most Americans — and us — to say yes.
That’s also the reassuring conclusion of the former heads of the 9/11 Commission, the independent, bipartisan group that investigated the attacks and recommended ways to improve security.
You may recall that the commission’s 2004 report was an instant best- seller, a dense page-turner that exposed the serial failures of intelligence, law enforcement and Congress to foresee and forestall the attacks. You couldn’t read it without a growing sense of dread as the “if only” narrative unspooled.
If only the CIA and FBI had communicated effectively about the curious case of a flight student who didn’t seem to be interested in learning how to
land
a jetliner. If only U.S. officials had greenlighted a cruise missile strike on Osama bin Laden years before the 2001 attack. If only someone had noticed that “The system was blinking red,” as the report memorably said. If only …
Most Americans won’t dive into the 10th anniversary report card from the leaders of that commission — former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana and former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean — and several co-authors with that same urgency.
But sometime over Labor Day weekend, we hope Americans will take a few minutes to scan it. Unlike the commission’s 567-page book, this report is a brisk 20 pages. You can find it at
chicagotribune.com/security
. It notes many things that have improved since 9/11. And just as important, all the things that remain to be done. The to-do list is long:
*America’s ability to detect explosives hidden on passengers boarding airplanes “still falls short in critical ways.”
*A recommendation for a nationwide broadband network for first responders “continues to languish.”
*Congressional oversight of intelligence and homeland security remains “dysfunctional.”
*A biometric screening system to detect terrorists entering or exiting the U.S. is unfinished.
Many Americans may shrug at these recommendations. They may figure that a decade without another major attack, a decade in which law enforcement officials blunted several terror attempts, shows that the system essentially works. Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is on the ropes. Why worry so much? Don’t we have other priorities now?
“I recognize we’re all worried about budgets, health care, unemployment, and we should be,” Kean said on the PBS show “NewsHour.” “But this is something we can’t ignore. The first responsibility of government is to defend its citizens. If we’re not doing that properly, we can’t do anything well.”
Credit Kean, Hamilton and their colleagues for reminding us, again, of that indelible fact.
Let the 10th anniversary be a time for reflection
and
greater resolve to follow those 9/11 Commission recommendations. So that a month, a year or a decade from now, Americans won’t be reminded of those terrible, prophetic words: “The system was blinking red.”
