Lets Roll

Ah, the 90s. A time of American prosperity and success. The Soviet Union had fallen, America’s biggest rival for the past 70 years had fell. The Cold War was over and some historians even suggested that history itself was coming to an end with the victory of liberal democracy and capitalism. It was a happy decade. There were some bumps along the way of course. In 1993, the Government raided a cult in Waco, Texas that was stockpiling weapons, which led to the deaths of 86 people. In 1995, a white supremacist bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in response to the Waco siege, killing 168 people. In 1999, inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing, two high schoolers walked into their school in Littleton, Colorado and murdered 12 students and a teacher. But overall, the 90s were a good time to be an American, the economy was booming and it seemed like it would go on forever. Americans really did feel invincible, until it all quite literally came crashing down on a late summers day in 2001.

Throughout the past decade, few cities were more important than New York City. It was the crown jewel city of America. A place where people of all religions, ethnic groups, languages, and orientations could prosper together, and New York was prospering. The stock market was higher than ever, and TV shows set in NYC like Friends and Seinfeld were at the forefront of pop culture. New York City was invincible, until it wasn’t.

On September 11th, 2001, thousands of New Yorkers made their way to work, thousands of tourists saw the breathtaking sights the city had to offer. It was a typical day for New York, and then a plane took off. American Airlines flight 11 had taken off from Logan International in Boston on its way to Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to people on the ground, the plane had taken a sharp turn headed towards New York City, and at 8:46 AM it slammed right into the tallest building in the country. The North Tower of the World Trade Center Twin Towers buildings was a symbol of American economic power, and it was an iconic part of the NYC skyline. This must have been an accident right? Pilots don’t just hit skyscrapers. It just doesn’t happen.

President George W. Bush had been notified about flight 11, but he too thought it was an accident. He proceeded to read a children’s story to a classroom in Sarasota, Florida, then it happened again. Around 9:03 am, to the absolute shock and horror of everyone on the ground, United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the south tower of the Twin Towers. The President was immediately notified that “A second plane had hit the second tower, America is under attack”. That was the moment that defined the rest of the century. This was no accident, America was under attack.

Bush is whisked away to Air Force 1 and flew to an undisclosed location. The media was frantic, the people in Manhattan were running away in sheer terror. The world was fixed on New York. Airspace is shut down and all flights are grounded. The NYPD and NYFD were on the scene immediately to help in what I believe is one of the best examples of American bravery I have ever seen. Many of these first responders walked into those towers knowing they would never walk out.

Then it happens a third time. At around 9:07, American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US military. Suddenly, Washington was under attack. It felt like the world was coming to an end. In New York, papers were flying everywhere, and people still trapped in the buildings were faced with the horrific choice, burn to death or jump. Many jumped out of the more than 1,000 feet (0.3 km) tall buildings live on television. Around 9:59 am, the south tower collapsed. In just a few seconds, hundreds of people were dead. It was absolute chaos

Passengers on United Airlines flight 93 had heard about the attacks in Washington and New York, 93 had been hijacked too, and it was headed for Washington. Instead of letting the terrorists get what they wanted, the passengers of 93 stormed the cockpit and retook the plane, crashing it into a field in southwest Pennsylvania. The last communication from that plane was passenger Todd Beamer reciting the Lord’s prayer and the 23rd Psalm before uttering his final words, “Are you ready? Ok. Let’s roll”. The brave actions of the passengers of flight 93 saved another American landmark (Either the White House or the Capitol building) from destruction, but more importantly, it saved countless innocent lives.

Around 10:28 am, the North Tower of the WTC collapsed, taking its occupants with it. It had survived for 102 minutes. The fabric of the country was forever changed, an entire generation of people born after the attacks (including myself) would grow up in an America marked by fear. Immediately afterward, people began asking “Who did this?”. All signs pointed to a man named Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was the leader of a fundamental Islamist militant organization known as Al-Qaeda, based out of Afghanistan. He was already on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list for his attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Despite multiple attempts by previous President Bill Clinton to catch him. He was still at large, and now he had attacked the US directly. His motives for the horrifying attacks on NYC and Washington were numerous. One of them was the presence of US troops in his home country of Saudi Arabia, which he saw as a violation of Islamic law. Another was US support of the state of Israel, which he believed did not have the right to exist. Whatever the reason, he was now the most wanted man in the world and the hunt was on.

He was based out of Afghanistan, which was a nation that had been a war zone for around 20 years at that point, the perfect place for a terrorist hideout. Afghanistan was run by a similar Islamic fundamentalist group, the Taliban. President Bush made it very clear that any country that refused to hand over Bin Laden would be counted as working with him. The Taliban refused and on October 8th, the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan with international support. The war on terror had begun.

The Taliban was quickly taken care of, but after a fierce battle in an Afghan cave system known as Tora Bora, Bin Laden escaped through the caves into Pakistan. The US had failed to catch him, and now they were stuck in a country with no government. 10 years later on May 2nd, 2011, Bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. President Barack Obama held a surprise press conference where he announced the death of America’s public enemy number 1 for the past decade. But the war in Afghanistan was not over. The new Afghan government was weak, and it needed US support to beat back insurgents. The 2001 war in Afghanistan lasted until President Joe Biden announced the evacuation of all soldiers from the country in 2021. Thousands of American soldiers, and Afghan civilians had perished. The war shattered the moral high ground that America had in the immediate aftermath.

But it wasn’t the only war that began as a result of the war on terror. The US government had believed that the country of Iraq, run by dictator Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attacks, they also believed that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Despite shoddy evidence of either of those claims, on March 19th, 2003, a few days before I was born, American forces invaded Iraq. This time around, there was a lot less international support, save for the British, Australians, and oft forgotten Polish. Many nations were critical of the invasion. Afghanistan was a war directly in response to the attack. Iraq was a scam. Nevertheless, the invasion had ended on May 1st, 2003 in a crushing Iraqi defeat. Now Saddam was on the run and America was tasked with rebuilding Iraq. Many Iraqis openly celebrated the defeat of Saddam, who had oppressed the Iraqi people for decades. But not every Iraqi was happy with the defeat.

Almost immediately afterward, the insurgency began. Each insurgent had a reason to fight the new government. Some were still loyal to Saddam, some fought for religious reasons, and some fought over ethnic tension. The US blunder into Iraq became evident. War crimes were committed, and once again thousands of American soldiers, and Iraqi civilians were killed. Straight up torture of Iraqis was permitted by the US government under the guise of it being “enhanced interrogation.” Many Iraqi children lost their lives, many US children were orphaned. The war was declared over by President Obama in 2011, but operations in Iraq were resumed in response to the killing of civilians by a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group known as the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. ISIS has since claimed hundreds of lives in attacks in countries as diverse as France, the US, and Nigeria.

But troops were not the only casualties of the war on terror. October 26th, 2001 saw the passing of the Patriot Act by Congress. The ironically named bill made government tapping of American phones common place. The extent of government spying on its citizens was not known until in 2013 when a man named Edward Snowden leaked confidential information from the National Security Agency. The effectiveness of the Patriot act on combating terrorism is negligible.

The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 was the end of the 1990s era of prosperity and optimism. Gen Z has grown up under constant surveillance and fear. Fear that is mostly unfounded as foreign based, Islamist inspired, attacks in the USA are incredibly rare. Right wing domestic attacks and shootings are far more common and are dealt with far less. I polled some of my followers on Instagram, asking they thought of 9/11 as a historical event or a modern event. Most of them said it was a historical event, if it was even thought of at all.

But the effects of 9/11 have touched all of our lives deeply. Even if we don’t notice it. I remember being terrified of going to firework shows on the 4th of July, because I thought ISIS would attack. I remember being terrified of freshmen year high school, because I thought someone would bring a gun to school. My life was defined by 9/11 and the cultural zeitgeist it brought. My uncle fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. He went over there multiple times, I remember being scared that we would not come back. These things will stick with me forever.

I have heard multiple people wish we could return to the America of 9/12. Americans were one. Everyone was out buying flags, being there for each other, no matter our differences were united. But this was not entirely true. Ignorance and fear was rampant. Multiple American’s of Arab and South Asian descent were murdered in “retaliation for the attacks”. On September 15th, 4 days after the attacks a man named Balbir Singh Sodhi was planting flowers outside his gas station. Mr. Sodhi was a Sikh-American who was just as distraught and terrified as every American about the events of the attacks. A scared and angry man drove up to the gas station and shot Balbir multiple times. The Sikhs are a religious group from Northern India, wearing colorful turbans is an important part of their religion, and Mr. Sodhi happened to be wearing one.

The divisiveness and hate that still infects and cripples the American dream still persists to this day. The America of 9/12 wasn’t perfect, and it is in the past. We are living in time where Americans are more angry and afraid than ever. I implore every American reading this to step up, think about the hard things in life, face your fears, and most importantly, love one another.

America is not perfect, not even close, but in my 19 years of being alive, I have grown quite fond of the USA. Of it’s promises of liberty, equality, and unity. These things are what America is supposed to be. Instead of pretending that they are absolute and unchanging, let's recognize that they are fragile. That they can be taken from us. Let us fight the war on terror, not with bombs, but with love. Let us tear down the hate and fear and replace it with love and unity. The 1990s are gone, but the future is ours, we have the energy, we have the drive, and we have two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven martyrs cheering us on. So what are we waiting for?, lets roll!

Complete 9/11 Commission Report § (2004). http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report.pdf

Laughland, Oliver. “‘This Is My Country’: How the Family of Balbir Singh Sodhi Resolved to Carry on His American Dream.” The Guardian, September 14, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/14/balbir-singh-sodhi-murdered-family-american-dream.

Hanks, Tom, Gary Goetzman, and Mark Herzog. “The 2000s - Quagmire: Bush’s Second Term.” Episode. The 2000s 1, no. 3. Atlanta, Georgia: CNN, July 22, 2018.