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On September 11, 2001 I was working at the World Bank in Washington. Around 9:30 I got the vibe that something was going on and went into a nearby conference room where people were gathered around a TV. Like everyone else, when the first plane slammed into the World Trade Center I though it was an accident (and that the plane was a light plane). But when we saw on TV the second plane hitting the second tower there was no doubt it was a terrorist attack. Our fears went from concerns for the people who were on the floors above where the planes hit to horror as both buildings collapsed. The horror increased as the news reports came in: a third plane was hijacked and then a fourth. There was a new attack on the Pentagon. Where was the fourth plane heading? Washington became ground zero. Ambulances and rescue vehicles were going across the Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon.
We soon heard from World Bank management, “Go home.” Easier said than done. I was commuting by car pool and it looked as if it was going to be impossible for me to connect with the others, given the fact that traffic was at a standstill. My friend, Allison Rosenberg had driven in and her car was parked in the basement. She graciously offered me a ride home (she lived in McLean). When we exited the parking garage we immediately ran into gridlock. Every intersection was blocked by cars because the volume of traffic made it impossible to get through the intersection before the light changed.
We were helped by one guy who was action-oriented. He stepped into the street and began directing traffic. There’s an identical scene (albeit with tanks) in the movie “Patton.” It took us a few minutes to get out of the traffic and on to the ramp to I-66. Once there we left all the traffic behind us and I got home in time to spend the next few hours with your mother watching the world go to hell. You both were married and I think Samantha was in Alabama and SA and Chris were in Alexandria. I didn’t have a cell phone and I think all phone systems were over-taxed.
I was never afraid of further attacks. But clearly this was a tragedy of epic proportions. I think George Bush showed himself to be very steady and a solid leader. He very soon after the attack went to visit a mosque to demonstrate to the American people that we were not at war with Islam, but with terrorists. He would later lose his way over Iraq as many people, including me, were fooled about Saddam Hussein’s boast that he had weapons of mass destruction.
The next few weeks were spent counting the cost and demonstrating that this terrible attack would not break our spirit. Baseball and football were part of our national spirit. And then we struck back at the Taliban in Afghanistan. It would take ten years to kill Bin Laden. And the world became more fearful, illustrated by the security at airports.
By and large, we acted courageously and wisely. We didn’t blame Muslims as a whole, and we didn’t seriously give up our civil liberties, but we did allow the CIA to torture suspects and detain them indefinitely (there are still detainees at Guantanamo). We did give the FBI and the CIA more power; we created the Department of Homeland Security; and we entered into forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was bad, but it could have been worse. I am not sure if it happened today we would not have behaved much more badly.