Remembering September 11, 2001: Lesson from chaos in New York

“There was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 11 September attacks. There was nothing demonstrating or showing that something was coming in the United States. If there had been something, we would have acted on it.” - Condoleezza Rice September 11, 2001 will not be easily forgotten by Americans and the entire world. It marked the longest most tragic day in the history of mankind (as at then), with a recorded death of about 3,000 people. This kind of tragedy was new in the entire human history. 13 years after, we still remember it and still analyse it and still believe that there are useful lessons there for humanity. But essentially, what could be the lesson for us, in Africa and particularly, Nigeria. We may begin by asking how that could happen in a country like America, with all the sophistication in military wares and security.september-11 While it happened, everyone was unaware of any such development. Later, the air was going to get cleared, literally, cleared. 13 militants, linked with an Islamic extremist organization, al-Qaeda had hijacked four commercial airplanes and flown two of the four into the twin towers of the world trade center in New York, causing massive damage to lives, property and conscience; the next plane crashed into the Pentagon military base, but the third was intercepted by patriotic passengers who preferred to die than have another part of the massive American structure earmarked for destruction suffer that. All these, introduced another phase of human history and the world would never be the same again. We now speak in terms of post 9/11 ( September 11, 2001 is generally referred to as 9/11). 9/11 is a landmark in world’s conception and perception of “terrorism.” Because of the extensive death and destruction that trailed 9/11, the government of USA and many other countries became aware of the monumental threat that terrorism poses to the peace of the world. September 11 is particularly important to a country like Nigeria today because it presents useful lessons on how to confront insurgency and terrorism. It is therefore worth revisiting, especially 13 years after. In the midst of the confusion that engulfed the whole America, President George Bush summoned courage to address the country. Although I am not an admirer of George Bush, nevertheless, I think it is important for us today to rethink his statements. At 9:00 P.M. on the same September 11, 2011, he made this comment: “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” This statement seemed to have galvanized Americans, who would put up collective efforts in combating terrorism. Well for us in Nigeria, we are just beginning to experience the dark sides of organized insurgency. We have had a fair demonstration of bombings and suicide killings and more recently, the abduction of legal residents and citizens of the country with the crowning attempt at the declaration and establishment of an independent Caliphate in the country. One would ask, are these not capable of “shaking the foundations of our country?” We could say destruction of churches, mosques, public buildings, diplomatic building and military bases may not translate into the destruction of our country, but tearing into our territorial integrity and destroying the future (like Chibok girls) certainly need not be handled with levity. What was the reaction of America – both the leaders and the led? In the same broadcast, President George Bush further said in case there is going to be an eventual U.S. military response: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” This explains a decisive position of government on terrorism. America went ahead to convince the international community on the need to combat terrorism and in less than one month, precisely on October 7, 2001, “Operation Enduring Freedom” was launched against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the purpose of which is to destabilize and possibly track down Osama bin Ladin, the notorious leader of al Qaeda. Although this war would be protracted, eventually, on May 2, 2011, US troupes finally tracked down and killed Osama bin Ladin in Abbottabad, Pakistan, bringing to an end, the efforts of a people towards a common cause and like President Barak Obama explained, Justice has been done. I will like to identify few important issues about 9/11. Let me start by going forward a little from September 2001 to May, 2004 when the entire America was informed of the deep issues of the terrorist attack through a commission of inquiry into the incident. Testimonies were taken from stake-holders and some interesting testifiers included the then National Security Adviser (NSA), Condoleezza Rice, who was going to become the Secretary of State. At this time, it had became clear that the attach was masterminded by a Saudi Arabian fugitive, Osama bin Ladin through his terrorist network, al Qaeda. The first point raised by observers and commentators made everyone curious: did US know that there was an impending attack of that magnitude? Ms Rice was unequivocal in her reply as the NSA, and I quote her: “There was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 11 September attacks. There was nothing demonstrating or showing that something was coming in the United States. If there had been something, we would have acted on it.” That comment immediately established the nature of terrorism in the 21st. century. It is delicate, deep and dangerous. Many Americans believed that there was neglect, on the part of government because it was insinuated that a warning that al Qaeda could strike was ignored by the Bush administration, but NSA was clear about the absence of such as she maintained that if government knew, they would have “moved heaven to stop it.” The real lesson now for us is to see through the American success so far and improve on it. Ms Rice developed a theoretical framework for the identification of the aim and objectives of insurgency and terrorism as follows: “A band of vicious terrorists tried to decapitate our government, destroy our financial system and break the spirit of America.” In clear terms, terrorists operate a three point agenda, namely: destroy government, destroy financial system and shatter the collective resolve of a people. In our case, these points are clear and the terrorists are holding fast to them. It is now up to us to rise to the occasion by adopting strategies that are peculiar to us. We must protect all these issues threatened by insurgency and terrorism. Intelligence services may fail us, but our common resolve will hardly do so. For instance, the formation of a civil defense group in Borno is a loud and bold collective response that will definitely succeed. What may not augur well for us is trading blames. There has been a lot of that already but we can overcome it, after all it happened in US and it, in fact, got to a stage when much opposition alleged that the war against terrorism was a cover for war for oil. In all, the integrity of America remained central in the argument. We need to sensitize government on the need to fund the military and other security outfits adequately, but making frivolous allegations may not be steps in the right direction. Security agencies may have to upgrade their operations and become a little more open, I mean educate the masses on important issues. We recognize the safety and security alerts, but they are too general. We expect them to be a little more specific like the US security would use colours to indicate the level of risk in violation alerts. We need to know the zones that are most vulnerable and the times that are most dangerous. I believe that with intensified enlightenment, a lot of progress will be made against terrorism and insurgency in the country. CHIMDI MADUAGWU (Ph. D.) - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/remembering-september-11-2001-lesson-chaos-new-york/#sthash.cGtN8wTL.dpuf