The 567-Page Story of a Humbled America

The 9-11 Commission’s final report concludes that officials in the American security apparatus, which was still emerging from Cold War thinking, were guilty of "failures of imagination" in dealing with potential terrorist attacks. The report spreads blame around, citing diplomatic, intelligence, bureaucratic, and military shortcomings and saying that “The institutions charged with protecting our borders, civil aviation, and national security did not understand how grave this threat could be, and did not adjust their policies, plans, and practices to deter or defeat it.” Giving weight to what many Americans have come to believe in the last three years, the commission argued that 9/11 was not an isolated incident, but one of the first in a global struggle against terrorism. The report’s prescription is an overhaul of institutions in both the government and private sectors so as to confront what the former governor of New Jersey calls “the challenge of our generation.” – YaleGlobal