NEVER FORGET: The 5 Lessons We Should Have Learned From 9/11

On the sixteenth anniversary of 9/11, it’s time for a reminder of the lessons we should have learned — and that we have now unlearned. On that horrific day, on a bright sunshine-riddled morning, Islamist terrorists flew two passenger airplanes into the World Trade Center towers, collapsing them both and murdering nearly 3,000 Americans; flew another passenger airliner into the Pentagon; and were only prevented from flying a fourth into the White House or Capitol by the bravery of passengers who forced the crash of the flight in a field in Pennsylvania.

America responded with the full brunt of her wrath. For a brief moment in time, we were united against a common enemy: we reduced Afghanistan’s ruling regime to powerlessness, then turned and reduced the Saddam Hussein regime to smoldering ash. We increased bureaucracy and security at our airports. We poured money into building our military. Some of this was necessary; some of it wasn’t. But we knew one thing: we wouldn’t allow ourselves to be hit again. We wouldn’t be caught asleep at the wheel again.