Misremembering

Fr. Greely says that the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks "should be a time of national disgrace and shame". He asks why a group of fanatics was able to humiliate the US and says that "[u]ntil we admit our shame, we will not be able to avoid another such national ignominy".

He says primary responsibility for the attacks lies with airline industry and Congress because Congress failed to mandate steel cockpit doors. That would be true if we knew for certain that the hijackers broke down the doors to the cockpit before taking control of the planes. Instead, what we know is much more ambiguous. From the 9/11 Commission Report:

We do not know exactly how the hijackers gained access to the cockpit; FAA rules required that the doors remain closed and locked during flight. Ong speculated that they had "jammed their way" in. Perhaps the terrorists stabbed the flight attendants to get a cockpit key, to force one of them to open the cockpit door, or to lure the captain or first officer out of the cockpit.

Maybe they did break down the cockpit doors, but it's just as likely that they gained access through other means.

Unless the airline industry was deliberately ignoring the potential threat to use an airplane as a missile, which I doubt, then what good would steel doors be? They don't protect cabin crew & passengers, that's for sure. In fact, steel doors on the cockpit are much like bullet proof glass in a bank - great at protecting some staff members, but useless against a ruthless criminal willing to kill customers rather than staff.

I go along with much of what Greely has to say about the failures of government. He seems keen to ignore the failures of the Clinton administration (and unquestioningly accepts the word of Richard Clarke), which I'm not willing to do. He doesn't even mention the immigration authorities' failures.

When it comes to September 11, there's plenty of blame to go around. But, ultimately, the US was attacked by "religious fanatics", but these fanatics were also a selected, specially trained unit of a stateless army. We made mistakes, but they committed the acts.

They committed the acts. Greely's whole premise is that our defense can be impenetrable. That's risible. There are always going to be weaknesses and sitting back daring the enemy to find them is asking to be hit. Attacking the enemy was the right decision.