Sep 11, 2005 3 min read

Today marks the four-year anniversary of an ignominious event that stands only behind Pearl Harbor as a rallying point in the nation’s history. It’s the day that terrorist-hijacked airplanes crashed into and felled New York City’s Twin Towers, damaged the Pentagon and turned a Somerset County field into a memorial. Nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, a day every bit as etched into the nation’s psyche as Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan’s surprise attack on Hawaii triggered U.S. involvement in World War II. We all know how that one ended up: Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany suffered humiliating and complete defeats, albeit at great cost to American life and limb. The price of victory was stiff, as our wartime allies also suffered heavy casualties, as did the vanquished nations.

It’s interesting to note, however, for comparative purposes, that World War II ended three years and eight months after the United States got involved. The current and ongoing war on terror, although smaller in scope and fought against a more nebulous enemy, is already longer than the bloodiest conflict of the last century. It has spawned battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no apparent end to the conflict in sight, as a different and persistent breed of enemy employs guerrilla and suicidal tactics.

How those overseas excursions will end up remains a great unknown. History has yet to be written on whether the foray into Iraq will bring democracy, freedom and stability to that country and spill over into the region, as envisioned by many war supporters; or whether the venture will turn into a quagmire that simply makes a bad situation worse, exacerbating a problem by galvanizing anti-U.S. sentiment in the Arab world, as predicted by many who possess doubts about the military excursion.

Domestically, the ripple effect of Sept. 11 has made homeland security a top priority, with the creation of a new department to oversee that effort, along with a reshuffling of the federal agency deck in an attempt to make the government more reliable and nimble in the war on terror and any related disasters. Thankfully, the system appears to be working, in the sense that no terrorist attacks have occurred on U.S. soil since events of four years ago. While ancillary controversies remain, such as whether the Patriot Act is a necessity in the fight against terror or an avoidable encroachment on personal privacy, the nation can take some solace in the overall results.

However, the inept handling of post-Hurricane Katrina events does little to inspire anyone that the federal government or any of its state cohorts is capable of handling a terrorist-related disaster. Granted, the hurricane was an act of nature and not of a warped, vengeful mind. But the end result was practically the same: Mass chaos, confusion and lawlessness; people dead, injured or displaced; and cities and rural areas left uninhabitable and without life’s necessities, including food and water.

Improvement is sorely needed. Let’s get it right for a next time we hope never comes.