Today is September 11. It is a date permanently seared into the collective conscious of all Americans. It has been more than a decade since we sat with rapt attention, watching the jets crash, the fire erupt and the building fall. There is little that can be said anew. Philosophers and prophets, politicians and pundits have all attempted to circumscribe the magnitude of it.
We took the nation to war over the terrorism visited upon our shores. Many more men and women have now died in a foreign, dusty, unrepentant land than did on that horrible morning eleven years ago.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is thought to have uttered, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”
The resolve that obviously grew from Pearl Harbor did not foment with the same endurance or ferocity after 9/11. Yes, there was an all-too-brief moment of bipartisan resolve. We embraced one another a little more freely. We broke down a few rigid lines.
Time passed. In some respects we are now chastened. In others, merely injured.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
It shouldn’t take a tragedy of herculean proportions to remind us that we need to be vigilant or that we should be good to one another. It shouldn’t take tragedy to make us proud of our country and of our armed service members. It shouldn’t take a tragedy to make us properly coordinate and equip public safety agencies.
Twenty three centuries ago there was a great Molossian general. History remembers him as Pyrrhus of Epirus. He was a strong and wise leader, eventually ruling over Macedon. Advised by the Oracle at Delphi, Pyrrhus took an army of many thousands of soldiers, archers, cavalrymen and even war elephants to the defense of Tarentum in Magna Graecia (modern Italy). Tarentum had fallen from favor with Rome. The Tarentines asked Pyrrhus to lead their war against the Romans.
When Pyrrhus invaded Apulia (279 BC) as part of this campaign, he met the Roman leader, consul Publius Decius Mus at the Battle of Asculum. Pyrrhus won a very costly victory, including many of his best officers and staff. Though the Romans were defeated, the victory decimated Pyrrhus’ forces. The Romans had lost 6,000 men and Pyrrhus 3,500.
Plutarch relates Dionysius’ account, “The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.”
From this we get the modern term “Pyrrhic victory” —- a win at such a cost that it may rightly be counted a loss.
With the benefit of eleven years from that fateful day, it is still unclear to whom the greater losses have occurred. Yes, Iraq and Afghanistan are largely subdued. Bin laden and Sadam are no more. Al Qaeda is a shell of its former self.
Since the wars began in 2003, we have suffered 4488 military deaths (3532 in combat) and endured over 33,000 military injuries. The totals for our enemies are far higher.
The events of 9/11 required a swift and certain response. We were morally obligated to avenge and reproach terror. The ultimate wisdom of our particular choices in that stead will not be known for many years to come. Until that time arrives, we will mark the anniversary and reflect.