It’s been a decade since September 11th, 2001. Many current college students were still in elementary school when the events of 9/11 occurred. I was 11, in the fifth grade, and got called out of math class to watch something on one of my school’s big bulky monitors. We watched the attack, and our young minds really didn’t have the capacity to fully understand the implications of everything that happened.
It’s been ten years. The generation that was pulled out of class to watch the tragedy is better able to absorb the facts surrounding what President Obama called, “The worst attack on the American people in our history.” Facts like these:
(Consistently agreed upon numbers are still hard to come by; below are approximations and ranges.)
•People killed in the World Trade Center attack: over 2,800. These includes those dead on the planes, those dead in the towers, those dead due to the collapse of the towers, and those public safety personnel who died during relief efforts.
•Number of bodies discovered and collected intact from Ground Zero: 289 – 291.
•Number of body parts collected: almost 20,000.
•Estimated number of orphans created by 9/11: 1,300.
•Increase in diagnosed PTSD in the Manhattan area: 200 percent.
•Distance the pillar of smoke billowing from the wreckage could be seen, on a clear day: 20 miles away.
•Hottest fires in the site wreckage: 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
•Single day point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average: approximately 685.
•Amount of federal aid given to New York in the two months following the attack: $9.5 billion.
And then what? Between 3,000 to 3,600 civilian were killed by the over 20,000 US bombs dropped on Afghanistan. Between 4,000 to 6,500 civilians were injured, many requiring prostheses.
And then what else? The war in Iraq, occupations all over the Middle East, the War on Terror, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the execution of Saddam Hussein, the decline of the US economy, global political unrest, the ongoing proliferation of ridiculous conspiracy theories…
Since September 11th, Congress has approved well over $1 trillion on military operations, enhanced intelligence, foreign aid, reconstruction, and veteran benefits. September 11th cost lives and cost money.
It’s likely there will be new degrees for college students that focus exclusively on the events surrounding September 11th, 2001. This history is particularly complicated because, unlike the Civil War or the Revolutionary War, it’s happening right now and there are still new inputs coming from everywhere.
Did the US do the right thing? In the wake of the attacks, President Bush said in an address to the US, “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward.” So, we attacked back. We defended freedom. Essentially, they shoved us, we shoved them back. Whether you agree or not with the actions taken as a direct result of the events of September 11th, it is generally agreed that the public demanded some kind of action.
However, we didn’t defend our freedom. That is just rhetoric designed to make us feel better for shoving back, subsequently killing tens of thousands of civilians in conflict after conflict. We defended our sense of security. We felt safe before September 11th, even though we weren’t then and still aren’t now. If you think we were safe from threats abroad, all you have to do is take a look at the first five or six hits you get on YouTube when you type in “September 11th.”
Maybe we’ve gotten some of that sense of security back. However, we haven’t recovered the lives we lost that day, and our unease will continue for decades to come. Many more anniversaries are needed to heal the injuries inflicted on 9/11. It’s a date that will live on in infamy for as long as the United States exists.