It’s been thirteen years now, hard to believe. I’m sort of relieved that there have been no apparent attempts on the part of the enemy to commemorate it with an attack, but the day is still young. Instapundit has a lot of links.
12 thoughts on “The Anniversary”
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Have there been any significant anniversary attacks other than Benghazi? Have any of the Benghazi attackers cited the anniversary as a motivation?
It may be that terrorists don’t attach tremendous significance to the anniversaries of other terrorists’ attacks. We’re dealing with a tiny sample — foreign terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are vanishingly rare to start with.
As for the reports of “chatter” pointing to an ISIS attack on the U.S. southern border today, that seemed more like a fever dream or an amalgam of political talking points than a likely possibility.
And if anybody knows from talking points, Jimboy does.
“Have there been any significant anniversary attacks other than Benghazi? ”
Notice that the attack happened in a country controlled by Islamic militants but still in conflict, although not with us. Most of the Islamic militant attacks happen in countries they are fighting in and this is because they are forced to focus on their immediate surroundings. Taking the fight to them, prevents them from having the space and freedom to attack us.
Most of the attacks in the USA have been from people radicalized by the internet and elements in their local communities. A few of them have been operations planned and implemented by AQ and its affiliates, like the Christmas Day bomber. The affiliate that planned that one, is operating out of Yemen. At that point in time, there was little pressure on them in Yemen. It was only after this attack that Obama began a shadow drone war in the country.
Samir Khan and Anwar al-Awlaki were Americans that were part of AQ’s leadership in Yemen. Samir Khan started AQ’s magazine, Inspire. Anwar al-Awlaki was an AQ spiritual leader who had a long history with AQ that went back to before 9/11 and he likely had a role in 9/11. He also worked for the US government on Muslim outreach and how the FBI and other government agencies should treat Muslims. (SMH) Both of these men fled to Yemen and were later assassinated there by drone.
Yemen is now one of the countries that we have shadow drone wars in. While the drone strikes have zero chance of eliminating AQ affiliates, they do keep the pressure on so that planning and implementing attacks against the USA are much harder. This is the core of Obama’s plan announced last night for Iraq and Syria.
IMO, this approach is not enough to drive ISIS out of Iraq but once they are out of Iraq, it could be enough to keep them from coming back. I would like to see a significant military effort on the part of the USA and our allies to drive ISIS from Iraq and to lock down the border with Syria so they don’t come back. I don’t know why we weren’t doing this for the last six years, other than Obama washed his hands of Iraq and refused to engage there. This approach does not mirror Obama’s rhetoric of destroying ISIS. The counter terrorism strategy is not about destroying AQ and its affiliates but harassing them so that they worry more about their own safety and their immediate surroundings rather than attacking our homeland.
I also wish Obama could be honest about what he plans to do rather than make grandiose claims when the planned actions are such small scale. We also need to have a serious national discussion about the Long War. People need to know how many countries we are at war in right now and it is a lot. Congress needs to have a role in approving these wars. Our leaders need to be up front and honest about the threats we face and what we are doing to address them. Hiding the shadow drone wars from the country because it doesn’t fit with the image Obama wants to show his base is not the right way to do this.
I also wish Obama could be honest about what he plans to do rather than make grandiose claims when the planned actions are such small scale.
I agree.
Congress needs to have a role in approving these wars.
I agree. They should vote, and the authorization should have an expiration date, so the issue is revisited periodically. It’s crazy that military activities today are still happening under the provisions of the 2001 AUMF.
The reason we haven’t had a major attack for 13 years on US territory so far is that the television drama show Person of Interest . . . is for real . . .
There have been major attacks in Boston, NYC, Fort Hood, and Detroit to name a few. The Times Square bomber and the Underwear bomber failed only because their explosive devices failed. There have also been many minor attacks. But you are right that there has not been more because of the work being done to prevent them. People shouldn’t assume that just because we don’t hear about every failed or busted plot that people are not trying to attack us.
Democrats are saying there is no threat from Muslim militants but then why are we at war in so many countries right now? Keeping these things secret to protect political narrative is a disservice not only to Democrats but the rest of the country.
There’s definitely a threat — I don’t think anyone denies that. The question is how to respond. Terrorism is like an auto-immune disease: most of the damage isn’t caused directly by the terrorists, but is a consequence of our response. Their most powerful weapon, as Obama just demonstrated, is their ability to make us react.
“most of the damage isn’t caused directly by the terrorists, but is a consequence of our response.”
Most of the damage is literally caused by the terrorists. The civilian death toll in Iraq was due mostly to Muslim terrorists killing other Muslims. Would they exist without our presence? Yes, the culture and ideology was already there all they needed was the backing of Iran and Syria to wage war.
In Afghanistan, there was already a decade of war with Islamic militants before 9/11. Same with Pakistan.
What we are seeing is less from the USA fighting back and more from the Arab world going through what they have been going through for the last thousand years. The collapse of the Muslim caliphates. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Dictators in the Arab world have been fighting off Islamic militants for decades. There have always been groups of people in the Middle East and North Africa motivated by religious conquest. We didn’t create that and our response to being attacked didn’t make angry people angrier.
There are also plenty of places where we took no action that are overrun by Islamic militants.
The blame America first ideology is bankrupt. Obama and the Democrats need to stop blaming Americans for all of the worlds problems because when you blame America and side with the Islamic militants you ignore what is really causing the problem. The USA isn’t the only player in this game. There are other players with their own objectives and motivations. Our actions or inactions viewed through an ethnocentric paradigm that refuse to even acknowledge there is a world outside of the USA with different cultures, histories, and societies, isn’t helping.
Most of the damage is literally caused by the terrorists.
Not in the U.S. The delays we’ve added to airport screening alone have been estimated to cause 500 road fatalities a year, as people drive rather than fly, a death toll that dwarfs the direct effects of terrorism in the U.S. The terrorists have caused billions in direct damage (almost all of it on 9/11); our response has cost trillions.
That is rather indirect Jim and hard to substantiate.
“The terrorists have caused billions in direct damage (almost all of it on 9/11); our response has cost trillions.”
Hmm, if 9/11 only cost billions in damage, it is in the hundreds of billions. I am sure it is higher when you take into account the cost of rebuilding and the costs to the economy. Our response hasn’t been perfect and I don’t like a lot of it domestically but I am not sure why we should only spend as much money responding to the threat as was done to us as damage. It isn’t a rational way to look at the situation.
A better way to look at it, and to use as PR, is to say you send 20 guys at us in highjacked airplanes and we send 300k guys in boats and airplanes even if it costs us trillions because f’ing up those who seek to exterminate us is priceless.
I’ve always said that James Bond can’t be real because James Bond would never have been caught sleeping when Argentina invaded the Falklands.
We should honor the anniversary by bombing some jihadis.