Today is the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States in Alexandria, Virginia, and New York City.
I will keep it simple: we did not respond to the attacks appropriately. The main thing we did right was remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan following their attack on our country.
But what we needed to do was this:
- Embrace our allies and not lash out at them as the Bush administration did.
- Root out and destroy money laundering for terrorism around the world. Countries that do not participate will lose access to the economies and currencies of the United States and the European Union.
- Expand visas on countries from which the terrorists were from. Shorten the lengths of their stay.
But we didn’t.
Money laundering continues to finance terrorism to this day. We expanded visas on our allies as state sponsors of terrorism saw no repercussions. We infringed on our liberties.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” is as true today as it was when legislators in Massachusetts were debating whether to sacrifice liberties they enjoyed under the crown in order to prevent war. It is the same debate America faced after 9/11.
It’s not just that you don’t deserve liberty or safety; it’s also that giving up liberty will not bring safety, as the temptation so often rings true.
The United States of America and every other country have laws that allow law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those who do wrong.
If your neighbor is caught selling cocaine to children, there is every reason to desire a drug investigation into their house to get evidence for the harm they are causing. That does not give the police the right to search my house for drugs unless there is probable cause I did something wrong.
If someone has committed a crime egregious enough to prevent them from crossing an international border, they should be in prison. Visas should be used on countries which have corrupt governments and countries which actively support terrorist organizations. They should not be the default for every country.
But unfortunately, that’s not how the 9/11 Commission approached this horrendous tragedy.
The goal of Islamist terrorism from the beginning has been to eradicate the free world and bring the entire world under a single Caliphate ruled by their leaders. The best way to fight this is to be as different from them as possible. Eradicting our own liberties to fight terrorism is counterproductive.