It was a tragedy that took the world by storm. It changed the world, some for the better and some for the worse. About 3000 families lost their loves ones. What is most important is that we learn from the mistakes we made earlier.

Blame can be traced back all the way to President Jimmy Carter from whom we learned our first lessons. He began giving aid to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets in 1979. Lesson #1 : Before we help one side of the battle against the other, we should verify that the guys we are helping out are the good guys. It does not mean that the side fighting the bad guys are the good guys.

The “B’nai Mitzvah” of these terrorists however, happened in the reign of President Ronald Reagan. It was during his reign that the war, and American involvement, greatly expanded. America was supplying money for weapons. He also called them “brave freedom fighters”.

More frighteningly, with American money, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), their CIA started training and radicalizing people like Osama bin Laden. Pakistan itself was governed by a religious nut, General Zia-ul-Haq. War became a Jihad and the Afghan resistance army became the Mujahideen.. Lesson #2; “Never radicalize, or pay for the radicalization of anyone into any religion, no matter how good their cause seem to be.” At this stage, President Reagan’s administration basically trained and handed the gun over to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

President Clinton was also offered Osama bin Laden 5 times on a plate. However, he did not want to take the offer as he did want to take part with a government that was involved with people like the #1 terrorist then, Carlos the Jackal. He did not want to be known as the President’s who was negotiating with “monsters.” Lesson #3; If you are given a terrorist on a plate by anyone, take it. At this point, President Clinton let Osama go when we had a chance to get him.

President Bush (43) was given the intelligence that there would be people that would be hijacking planes soon. Yes there was a miscalculation by the CIA that they would be able to get the plane on the ground and storm the plane. However, should there be any threat on anybody, the President should have taken action to prevent it. Lesson #4; Take threats seriously. President Bush could have stopped Osama and AlQaeda but did nothing.

After the attacks happened, we should learn the biggest lesson of all. Some people acted out of fear and took laws into their own hands. A Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot dead in his store in revenge attacks for 9/11. Many people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent were harassed for the color of their skin. Why? Because, we were scared!

Our government acted out of fear when we got people to Guantanamo Bay and tortured / enhanced interrogated people. Our government acted out of fear when we attacked another country based on what we got from torture/ EITs. Lesson #5 : Always go with the head, never out of fear.
There may be many other lessons that we should take back. Like how we go about securing our airports. We are still lacking in many departments. For example, many Federal buildings are poorly secured. Lastly, the team at ST would like to offer our condolences to all victims of 9/11.

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