How could we have prevented 9-11

[timNem]

Topic:

How could we as a nation/govt prevented the terrorists from crashing planes into our buildings? And have can we prevent similiar actions from happening in the future?


Lets hear your thoughts

[cocky4ever]

Well...lets see. When we as a country have warnings about such things we should alert relevant schools/agencies. For example- if we know that al-queda plans to use planes to attack this country we should inform flight schools and airports to be on the look out for suspicious behaviour. A good step in the right direction would be looking out for people in flight school who cant speak a lick of decent english wanting to learn how to fly but not land.

Another step would be securing the cockpits after learning of such plans. Also we could've had plans to keep fighter jets ready to protect this country from such attacks. Of course we cant keep fighter jets in our skies 24/7, but training missions are carried out every day. Why not start training for such scenarios? Why not have people ready to respond in such a situation?

How about properly monitoring people whom we give flight lessons to? How about not escorting out of the country all family members of the suspected mastermind behind the plots?

...I'd say those are a few good sarting points.

[gatorunvrsty]

I'm not sure we could have actually prevented it from happening. Even if the administration had heeded the warnings, the type of attack would still have been easily accomplished because of one of our most dear ideals... relative freedom. The airlines weren't prepared for anything like that; wouldn't have been even with better intel; and still weren't all that good following the implemented changes in security.

Knowing something is going to happen doesn't allow us to prepare for what the actual attack will be... we would have had to know the exact, specific plans. Unfortunately, weaknesses in security aren't usually exposed except by tragedy... often, it takes a disaster to discover there's something wrong in the first place.

[cocky4ever]

I'm not sure we could have actually prevented it from happening. Even if the administration had heeded the warnings, the type of attack would still have been easily accomplished because of one of our most dear ideals... relative freedom. The airlines weren't prepared for anything like that; wouldn't have been even with better intel; and still weren't all that good following the implemented changes in security.

Knowing something is going to happen doesn't allow us to prepare for what the actual attack will be... we would have had to know the exact, specific plans. Unfortunately, weaknesses in security aren't usually exposed except by tragedy... often, it takes a disaster to discover there's something wrong in the first place.

Yeah, but an organization with common sense and good communication will be able to lessen the attack or at the very least postpone the attack. If everyone had been on their p's and q's many people would've known of such attacks being planned. So an Arab coming in with a heavy accent and no desire to learn how to land a plane would've been heavily questioned. At the very least he would'nt have gotten his training and at the most he would've been questioned and revealed info on others.

You do make a good point to a certain extent though in that we cant plan for every possible scenario to unfold. Still, if we were even moderately efficient as a group and country we could've lessened the amount of damage we received on 9/11.

[gatorunvrsty]

Yeah, but an organization with common sense and good communication will be able to lessen the attack or at the very least postpone the attack. If everyone had been on their p's and q's many people would've known of such attacks being planned. So an Arab coming in with a heavy accent and no desire to learn how to land a plane would've been heavily questioned. At the very least he would'nt have gotten his training and at the most he would've been questioned and revealed info on others.

You do make a good point to a certain extent though in that we cant plan for every possible scenario to unfold. Still, if we were even moderately efficient as a group and country we could've lessened the amount of damage we received on 9/11.

I agree with much of that. In retrospect, proper restrictions and policing of flight schools could have raised a red flag. They're private businesses, too, though; so I'm not sure what kind of oversight they could have implemented. But, I'd be willing to bet the background checks for that type of thing are considerably more vigorous at this point.

We knew something was up; but, for me, the bold and brazen disregard for civilians really took me by surprise. I'm probably not alone, either. But, I won't be caught off guard again... anything is possible in this world today, and I'm much more aware of my surroundings. It was always in the back of my mind when I visited my little sister in D.C. last year.

[Williams-Brice]

Turning the whole area over there into a huge parking lot in the early 1990's would have helped.

^ Said totally tongue in cheek.

[timNem]

I agree with much of that. In retrospect, proper restrictions and policing of flight schools could have raised a red flag. They're private businesses, too, though; so I'm not sure what kind of oversight they could have implemented. But, I'd be willing to bet the background checks for that type of thing are considerably more vigorous at this point.

We knew something was up; but, for me, the bold and brazen disregard for civilians really took me by surprise. I'm probably not alone, either. But, I won't be caught off guard again... anything is possible in this world today, and I'm much more aware of my surroundings. It was always in the back of my mind when I visited my little sister in D.C. last year.

Not much at that time without causing an uproar about infringing on these privates business' rights. That would almost fall into the category of the Patriot Act at that time.

It was strange because I had just finished reading one of Tom Clancy's books just before 9-11, Executive Orders where it began with terrorists taking control of a flight and crashing the plane into the Capitol building killing most of congress along with the Pres and VP. I think that is where the 4th plane was headed and thank God that the passengers decided not to go down without a fight because as bad as 9-11 was it could have been much worse.

[GetEmGamecocks]

We could have had a better jet fighter system. Because of all of the drills the Air force was doing, there were six fighter planes ready to fly to protect our airspace. That's stretched way to thin if you ask me. Ironically, one of the missions was teaching pilots what to do when a commercial plane is highjacked. Too little, too late. With a better system, we could have scrambled the three planes that flew into the WTCs and Pentagon. Or at least one of them. Well that's just my opinion. I'm sure someone could argue against me that this wasn;t possible, or that we couldn't have shot down the planes anyways. I think a competent air defense system would have scrambled the planes. Screw NORAD too.

[tennesseegirl]

This will be the thread that never ends , lol

[sheluvsbama]

I agree with much of that. In retrospect, proper restrictions and policing of flight schools could have raised a red flag. They're private businesses, too, though; so I'm not sure what kind of oversight they could have implemented. But, I'd be willing to bet the background checks for that type of thing are considerably more vigorous at this point.

We knew something was up; but, for me, the bold and brazen disregard for civilians really took me by surprise. I'm probably not alone, either. But, I won't be caught off guard again... anything is possible in this world today, and I'm much more aware of my surroundings. It was always in the back of my mind when I visited my little sister in D.C. last year.

And in NYC there was a huge traffic jam due to one of the major bridges from Manhattan being closed while divers were checking the areas underneath it for possible bombs. It is no fun to sit in traffic for 3 or 4 hours in the middle of the summer. You must always be vigilant in high profile cities such as NY. It is a shame we must worry about things like this, but life in America was changed the day the World Trade Center went down. Changed forever.:sad: