I don’t know if I would have been able to follow the information conveyed as well if The 9/11 Report was just written as a chapter book. It was a very unique approach to sending out the facts regarding 9/11 to the public. I thought I knew a lot more about what happened 9/11 and the events leading up to it until I read this book.

I think it is ridiculous how our country could have taken measures to prevent 9/11. There were many warnings including a daily briefing delivered to George W. himself that headlined, and I quote "Bin Ladin determined to strike US". That was the most obvious of the omens, but there were many other subtle ones including the threat in the London newspaper and the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Even after all this much attention wasn’t given to counter-terrorism.

I think it is very ironic that the US supplied billions of dollars in assistance to the Afghanis fighting against the Soviets. That same money would later be used against us when it fell into the wrong hands of Al Qaeda. No good deed goes unpunished, I always say. I also find it ridiculous that the sharing of information between administrations such as the FBI and CIA wasn’t encouraged. What kind of a childish grudge is going on between these two that they won’t get over themselves to help the greater good of their country and exchange pertinent resources? I could go on criticizing the government for its inefficiencies. How the FAA no fly-list contained only 12 names while the government’s contained thousands. And why wouldn’t the government give their list to the FAA since these were the people handling such matters?

On page 49 the book talks about how missile attacks against Bin Ladin were in conversation, yet the government was hesitant because as many as 200 people could be killed in collateral damage. If the United States flew over Kandahar and fired missiles aiming for Bin Ladin, but perhaps missing and killing hundreds because in fact Bin Ladin wasn’t actually there, do you mean to tell me Kandahar would not retaliate? One of the captions actually reads "And for one reason or another, no action was taken." HA!

The next page is just as asinine. The first caption states "Though it was believed that President Clinton wanted Bin Ladin dead…" …what? Was there really speculation about this topic? Isn’t it a pretty black and white issue? And wasn’t Clinton a liberal who was against the death penalty? Anyways I’m glad the US had Massoud to turn to, to help us in our fight against Bin Ladin, however I do disagree with his massacres of the innocent and heroin trafficking but hell, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

There are a few questions I have that the book left unanswered. How was the message sent out in code? 2 sticks, a toothpick, and a lollipop? Why were the pilots to crash their planes if they could not reach their targets? In honor of the Taliban spirit wouldn’t it make more sense to choose any populated American destination and crash the plane there as opposed to an isolated field in Pennsylvania? Also a few points the book made that I found terrifying were how Bin Ladin considered acquiring WMD a "religious obligation" and how plutonium the size of an orange could level lower Manhattan. I really fear for these things falling into the wrong hands however I don’t think the war we are waging is helping. I think we should have never gotten ourselves involved at all, and I think the sooner we get out of this war, the better. Al Qaeda probably hates America because we get into everyone’s business, try to take over everything, and impose our lifestyle on them. If we were to just leave them alone we probably would have never made enemies. Its never too late to make peace.