I’m reading, as you know, the 9\/11 Commission Report.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It’s emimently readable, but nothing like reading fiction.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 In fiction, each detail contributes to the story.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 In the report, there are many details that don’t contribute to the story.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They are just facts.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 And way too many characters.
\nPerhaps most striking to me today is the account of the pilot-highjackers and their preparations for the attack.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They came to the U.S. a year or two in advance to learn English and attand flight school.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Two of the terrorists stayed in San Deigo for a period of time.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They proved terrible students, and never did learn English.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It must have been lonely, having cut off all communication with their families.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 One of them had an especially tough time transitioning to the United States.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 When he received work that his first child had been born, it was the last straw.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He went AWOL and returned to his home country (Yemen, I believe).\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the famous mastermind behind the plot, was furious.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted to kick this man off of the team.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Bin Laden disagreed, and the would-be father was eventually ‘returned’ to the team.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 I wonder what his wife thought.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 I wonder if she knew what her husband was going to do.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Twisted ideals or no, there’s something elemental in the love of a wife that must have cried out at her husband’s willingess to martyr himself for his faith in a brutal act of savagery.<\/p>\n
Before today, I’d never thought about the humans behind the attack; I’d only thought of the acts.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Truly, looking at their thumbnail-sized low-quality photos printed in duotone on the pages of a book was a moving experience for me.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 I just stared at those pictures and wondered what kind of zeal must have possessed these men that they would plan for several years to die.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Two years is a long time to know the date of your death, and it’s a long time to lose your nerve or change your mind.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 I wonder whether any of them changed their minds, or had to talk each other back into following the plan.<\/p>\n
Fascinating to put faces to the savagery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m reading, as you know, the 9\/11 Commission Report.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It’s emimently readable, but nothing like reading fiction.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 In fiction, each detail contributes to the story.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 In the report, there are many details that don’t contribute to the story.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They are just facts.\u00c3\u0192\u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 And way too many characters. Perhaps most striking to me today is the … Continue reading The humans behind the 9\/11 attack<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-report","category-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdZlL-3o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}