Lessons Learned?

Nine Eleven 2021

I was making a cup of tea for my breakfast getting my mind ready to go teach school when the morning news was interrupted by the story of an airplane flying into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. As I watched, my first thoughts were, “I don’t know who is responsible, but they have committed suicide. Our country will identify them and kill them.”

When I arrived at school, there was a television set up in the library directly across the hall from my classroom. When the bell rang for first period, I had to round up my students. It seems I was the only teacher who was having class. I guess the others wanted their students to watch history in the making. After I had my class assembled, I told them we would have our regular lesson. I refused to allow the terrorists to win. I knew I couldn’t do much, but I could not grant them the victory to command my day. So, I taught class, and as soon as my class was over, my students went back to the television in the library.

Despite my futile efforts, the terrorists won. They forced us to change our lives. For awhile we lived in fear. We established the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to prevent terrorists from carrying weapons on our aircraft. Every passenger was searched. Little old ladies had to remove their shoes. I recall one flight when I forgot a breath mint in my pocket. The inspector made me remove my suspenders, and my pants fell down around my ankles. We have become a little more reasonable, but we still refuse to allow TSA to profile potential threats. What are the odds of a retired US Air Force septuagenarian being a terrorist?

In the decade prior to the fall of the towers, the CIA and our military intelligence gathering agencies had come under scrutiny. Liberal elements who honestly believed we didn’t need to spy on our allies and those who believed we could gather all the information we needed by satellite convinced Congress to cut funding and eliminate many of our undercover operatives. Thus, when we tried to find those behind the attack, we didn’t have the capability. It took eight and a half years and a lot of help from our allies to eliminate Osama Bin-Laden. Eight and a half years for the strongest nation on earth to find a terrorist!! That is both unbelievable and unacceptable.

I am sorry to say we haven’t learned anything. We have come to accept a security system hamstrung by public sentiment. The same liberal ideology that destroyed our intelligence agencies is destroying our metropolitan police forces. Unfilled vacancies are forcing law enforcement across the country to cut back. We are more concerned about team mascots than we are about protecting our cities.

Security screening is a small intrusion into our freedoms and quality of life. A reduction in police patrols increase the probability my house will be broken into. We need to look at the long-term consequences of government mandates due to the pandemic. Our freedoms and our quality of life are being eroded.

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 20 years.