Failure of Imagination

According to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission), the plotters of the September 11th attacks were “flexible and resourceful” with respect to their tactics.

The commission goes on to opine that the United States will never know whether any single step or series of steps would have defeated their tactics. What the commission did confidently say, however, was that none of the counterterrorism measures adopted by the United States from 1998 to 2001 “disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al Qaeda plot.”

Across the government, numerous failures were identified to include failures of imagination, policy, capabilities, and management. According to the 9/11 Commission, the most important failure was “one of imagination.”

As a result, al-Qaeda’s new tactics presented some serious challenges that U.S. government institutions were not prepared to counter.

In your initial post, consider this “failure of imagination” and this week’s reading, by providing your comments about how you feel the United States can get out in front of evolving terrorist tactics in order to prevent new and emerging threats.