The way we were a day before
On that day 20 years ago this week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war on Pentagon bureaucracy, saying that it was a threat to national security and “a matter of life and death.” A day later, the nation’s security would be breached and there would be a new threat that truly was a matter of life and death
On that day two decades ago, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware delivered a speech warning that America’s role in the world was in danger of being undermined by Washington’s willingness to “go it alone” and its readiness to “make unilateral decisions in what we perceive to be our own self-interest.” A day later, events would be set in motion in which the country was willing largely to go it alone and make unilateral military decisions
On that day, American warplanes attacked farms sheltering three surface-to-air missile sites 100 miles southeast of Baghdad in Iraq. A day later, those sites, and other military installations throughout the country, would be in fresh danger from a newly mobilized American militar
On that day, Donald J. Trump sat with Sarah Jessica Parker and Monica Lewinsky in the front row of a Marc Jacobs fashion show on Manhattan’s far west side. The next day, he would do a live telephone interview with a New York television show and say of his 71-story building at 44 Wall Street, not far from the collapsed twin towers, “Now it’s the tallest.”
On that day, Americans were preoccupied with the bare female shoulders and backs in fashion styles inspired by Britney Spears, even as Macy’s was selling sweater coats for $34.99 for the fall season.
On that day, the terrorists that Colin L. Powell worried about were living in the South American nation of Colombia. A day later, terrorists trained at a base in Afghanistan 9,000 miles from Bogota changed life in the District of Columbia. On that day, the secretary of state said he expected his resolve against the FARC terrorists associated with Communists “will leave no doubt that the United States considers terrorism to be unacceptable, regardless of political or ideological purposes.”
On that day, President George W. Bush would present Australian Prime Minister John Howard with a bell that for a quarter-century sat aboard the U.S.S. Canberra, and he saluted “a faithful partner, in times of crisis and in times of calm.” A day later, those words would take on new meaning after an episode that would lead to Australia joining the United States in Afghanistan combat. That day was Sept. 10, 2001 On that day, the 619th of the 21st century, Americans experienced the last normal day of the new millennium.
On that day, 2,996 people went about their business in a carefree manner, some in New York office towers or fire stations, some planning transcontinental flights, some in offices in the warren of the Pentagon, some giving little thought to the news. A very few of them knew, and fewer cared, that the Taliban controlled more than three-quarters of Afghanistan. None of them would be alive a day later. They would perish at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania
The president, in only his seventh month in office, had a 55% approval rating. He had left the event with the Australian leader for Andrews Air Force Base and departed for a school event in Jacksonville, Florida, and then flew to the state’s west coast, where his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, assembled a dozen old friends for an upbeat, casual dinner.
The president had been chosen by the Supreme Court after
Sept. 10, 2001 … On that day, the 619th of the 21st century, Americans experienced the last normal day of the new millennium.
36 grueling days of political deadlock; a dozen members of the Black congressional caucus had tried to block the delegation of Florida’s 25 electoral votes to Bush. The Republicans lost control of the Senate when Vermont’s Jim Jeffords left the party. Congress fought about spending cuts.
“Sept. 10 was the last day of those divisions,” said Card. “By the next day, we weren’t Republicans, we weren’t Democrats, we were Americans.”
We could not have imagined the next day, its horror and heroics. But now, 20 years after the event that prompted two wars and curtailed civil liberties, we might look back on Sept. 10 with great nostalgia. It is the Day Before.