Maxwell panelists reflect on need for post-9/11 unity in today’s America
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On Sept. 12, 2001, New York City’s streets became a symbol of a newly unified country in the aftermath of tragedy, Chris Meek, CEO and founder of the 9/11 Legacy Foundation, recalled.
“Every neighborhood in Manhattan had an American Flag hanging up. Everyone became united, they were one front, one nation,” Meek said. “I’d love to get back to Sept. 12 without having Sept. 11 happen again.”
Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs hosted a panel discussion Monday where panelists questioned whether the country would still reach the same level of unity if the events of 9/11 occurred today.
“We know the media landscape is more polarized, and so I suspect that the rallying around the flag would not be as easy to accomplish today as it was at that time,” Mark Lodato, Dean of SU’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, said.
The panelists focused on the tragedy’s lasting legacy 25 years later, followed by a screening of the documentary “The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11,” a film produced by Meek.
The panel, moderated by Maxwell School Dean David Van Slyke, consisted of four panelists who each shared their perspectives during the 9/11 attacks:
- Meek, who was working at the United States Stock Exchange at the time of the attack.
- Lodato, who was reporting from the Pentagon on 9/11.
- Admiral Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law, who was senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Joint Forces Command on 9/11.
- Renée De Nevers, associate professor of public administration and international affairs at SU, who was researching international security at the University of Oklahoma on 9/11.
In addition to debating how modern political polarization would’ve made unity more difficult to accomplish, the panelists also discussed how the tragedy caused the U.S. government to make several controversial policy decisions.
De Nevers spoke about how NATO’s “unanimous” support impacted the U.S. She also noted Congress’ quick passage of the authorization for use of military force, which helped enable the U.S. to pursue military campaigns in its War on Terror, including an invasion of Iraq. She said the support for a response to the attacks resulted in the president and subsequent presidents receiving “expansive leeway to prosecute the War on Terror.”
The sweeping support for a military response to the attack and White House policymakers’ belief that Al-Qaeda couldn’t have accomplished their attack without state support led the U.S. to quickly shift focus to Iraq, De Nevers said.
De Nevers called the decision to start planning a regime change in Iraq at the end of 2002 a “historic error in terms of U.S. policy” and one with which “we are still living with the consequences.”
Murrett said he was “kind of in the middle” of the planning of the invasion of Iraq despite leaving the U.S. Joint Forces Command “a matter of months” after 9/11. He concurred with De Nevers that the U.S. saw the 9/11 attacks as a reason to pursue regime change in Iraq.
“There was a strong push by the administration to have regime change in Iraq, and there was a search for a basis for doing so,” Murrett said. “Ultimately what was agreed upon were weapons of mass destruction.”
The panel also focused on the country’s resilience after surviving the attack.
Meek said he vividly remembers seeing “confetti on fire” from his window across the street from the World Trade Center that day and people jumping to their deaths from the building because it was “their best option.” He said he specifically remembers seeing a woman jump from one of the buildings and pull down her dress while falling as “one last act of dignity.”
Despite the loss his city suffered, Meek recalled a determination to restart America’s financial institutions. Meek said he returned to work on Sept. 13 and worked multiple 20-hour days where he dealt with bomb threats “once every three hours.”
“By showing that we’re going to be open for business on Monday, Sept. 17, six days after 2,977 were murdered on American soil was the biggest finger we could give to the terrorist community,” Meek said.
For event attendee and SU sophomore Max Weinstein, the discussion offered a new understanding of what resilience means 25 years after the attacks.
“I think resilience is being able to balance mourning with progress,” Weinstein said. “A major part of our resilience was identifying the damage they were trying to cause and showing them that they can’t hurt us.”
