Yesterday, the Brown community marked a decade since a sunny Tuesday morning morphed into a national nightmare. Our thoughts are with our classmates, faculty and staff who lost loved ones on that terrible day.
People our age are in a unique position to look back on the decade since Sept. 11, 2001. The oldest undergraduates were still just young teenagers on that morning. We came of age in a world shaped by the attacks. While our attention turns first and foremost to those in the Brown community who were personally touched by the tragedy, it is also important to consider how 9/11 impacted our last 10 years and how we will let it define our next 10.
In the months leading up to September 2001, politicians debated how best to use the budget surplus former President George W. Bush inherited. Today, with the country in a dire economic predicament and the government saddled with debt, we must balance our priorities. That means reevaluating how much money the federal government should spend on fighting the terror threat. The government has an unquestionable obligation to protect the lives of Americans, but we must also be mindful of Osama Bin Laden's stated goal of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy." Our approach must rest on cost-balance analysis to a much higher degree than many policies instituted after 9/11 did.
There are arguments to be made for all manner of positions regarding the appropriate federal approach to terrorism going forward. But we must insist that debate accounts for those profound consequences of the war on terror that are not immediately apparent. Decisions about military action, for example, can no longer be made without careful consideration of the difficulty and cost of caring for our wounded veterans. And questions about balancing terror and privacy remain prevalent and pressing.
While looking ahead to the challenges we face in our ongoing fight against terror, we cannot lose sight of the mistakes we made in the lead-up to 9/11. It is unacceptable that several of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations have yet to be implemented. Congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security is another troubling issue. DHS reports to "100 different committees and subcommittees," resulting in fragmented information and a lack of accountability, not to mention a simple waste of resources. Members of Congress should wipe the dust off their copies of the 9/11 Commission Report and finish implementing the reforms that will make us safer.
The world is a much different place 10 years after 9/11. Osama Bin Laden is dead, the president is slowly winding down our military engagements overseas and democracy is stubbornly making inroads in the Middle East and Africa. Terror remains around the globe, but our eventual victory over Al Qaeda seems clearer than ever.
To commemorate yesterday's anniversary, many news outlets reported stories about our peers who lost parents in the attacks and went on to lead lives full of meaning and value to those around them. The perseverance of these young men and women in the face of evil is confirmation that the scourge of terror will never defeat our nation.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
