“NORAD officials have maintained that they would have intercepted and shot down United 93. We are not so sure. We are sure that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to the passengers of United 93. Their actions saved the lives of countless others and may have saved either the Capitol or the White House from destruction. The details of what happened on the morning of September 11 are complex, but they play out a simple theme. NORAD and the FAA were unprepared for the type of attacks launched against the United States on September 11, 2001. They struggled under difficult circumstances, to improvise a homeland defense against an unprecedented challenge they had never before encountered and never trained to meet…Many of our recommendations call for the government to increase its presence in our lives…” The 9/11 Commission Report (2004)
The 9/11/2001 attacks mark a turning point in American history because
a) foreign power had never before directly attacked a U.S. state or territory.
b) the President, as a result, declared an entire religion to be America's enemy.
c) the U.S. government became aware of alQaida for the first time.
d) they would lead to a major military conflict with a nonstate actor
