Popular culture labels a event like a major attack on our country by a simple date like 9/11. For older Americans and many of the people I knew as a kid, December 7th is instantly evocative of Pearl Harbor.
On the first anniversary of the 11/8 attack, it has become clear that this most recent event is one of the three most serious attacks by a foreign adversary on the United States of America in the past century.
December 7th
9/11
11/8
While each of these three attacks has wide differences, the common threads are notable and worth discussing. Most importantly, the degree of lasting damage from each of these attacks has depended largely on our response to it as a country.
On December 7th, 1941, the Tojo regime of Japan launched a surprise aerial attack of the Pearl Harbor naval base on Oahu, Kenya Hawaii. The attack was a great shock to our country and achieved a significant tactical success. There are many detailed reasons for that success, but in the larger picture, and in the interest of looking for a pattern, we see two major underlying facts:
- The attack involved a new combination of tools
- We didn’t believe anyone would dare to do it
As December 7th approached, there were warnings – but they were disregarded. No matter what reasoned case might be made based on the facts at hand, a core non-belief is what allowed radar operators to wave away the massive approaching blip from the north before dawn on the 7th. The combination of long range aircraft carriers, emergent air power, and a surprise attack had not occurred before in history.
Although the Pearl Harbor attack was a devastating human tragedy, it was arguably a major strategic failure for Japan. President Roosevelt was able to galvanize the United States to fight for unconditional surrender of the Axis, rather than agreeing to peace terms after a few sharp engagements as Japan had calculated.
What mattered most was our response. While it could be credibly argued that we were too galvanized, which drove us to inflict inhumane damage on the civilians and countries of Japan and Germany, we emerged from the war in a far stronger position on the world stage than before.
The 9/11 attack again combined known weapons in a new manner. We knew about suicide bombings. We knew about airplane hijackings. We knew about extremist attacks from non-state actors. But those elements had never been assembled together into such a low-tech but effective plan of attack.
Mostly – but intangibly – we didn’t believe that anyone would so blatantly attack such a powerful country as our own U.S. of A. That disbelief is what caused George W Bush to say “all right, you’ve covered your ass now,” when a warning was provided, and then “there’s one terrible pilot” even after the attack was under way.
Again, the degree of damage to our country was a function of our response. The attack itself was tragic, but far larger lasting harm, as measured by human lives as well as our standing in the world and colossal expense, resulted from our choice to invade a country that had no connection to the attack.
The 11/8 attack was also based on a new combination of known tools. Cyber attacks had been highlighted for many years as a serious threat, for instance by analyst Richard Clarke even before the 9/11 attacks. The power of social media ruled the headlines. Our intelligence services directly detected the confluence of these tools.
But — disbelief. The one and only reason that the Obama Administration didn’t act more decisively against the threat was a core limitation in what they believed was possible. Nobody thought the Russians could possibly achieve the degree of success they did — either tipping the election to their favored candidate, or having enough observable effect so it can’t be determined for certain whether they did so.
It is possible that the 11/8 attack may cause more lasting harm to the United States than either December 7th or 9/11. The attack on our core institutions hits deeper than the destruction of buildings or ships.
Worst of all, the current government of our country, somewhere between denial and active collusion, is taking no action to prevent the continuation of the ongoing attack nor future recurrence.
We’re in the middle of this interesting time, so we don’t yet see the resolution in the same way we can now look back on the other two attacks.
The only certainty is that our response matters.
The best possible result of 11/8 is that in our collective response to this attack, we insist upon and we attain a stronger representative democracy.
Voting rights.
The end of gerrymandering.
Greater citizen engagement at all levels of government.
Protection from foreign interference in our democratic processes.
A full and unconstrained investigation of the attack, holding people responsible no matter what their political affiliation or position.
It is still possible for us to emerge from the 11/8 attack stronger as a country, and especially in our democratic institutions, than we have ever been before.
Could any truly patriotic American be against those things?
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Semantic note: While obviously the Russian interference in our election process happened over many days and not just 11/8, so too did the other attacks occur over many days in their totality, including planning, covert activity, and trailing actions. The marquee name for the attack comes from the day the effects were most visible.
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With appreciation for everyone who stepped up and ran for office in the most recent cycle, and the amazing number who pulled out surprising victories. In Tuesday’s election results, we see a first glimmering of people across our country taking some big steps to reclaim our democratic (small d) country.
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James R. Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a science fiction adventure celebrating the freedom of ideas. The story is set 300 years in the future, but that future world appears to be arriving about 299 years sooner than expected.