February 26th, 1993

Judgment Day
Written by Dennis Mikolay

Everybody remembers the September 11th (2001) attacks. They terrified Americans, cost thousands of innocent lives, and ultimately changed the world. They were horrendous, and at the time, it seemed that our way of life had come to an end.

Now, less than eight years later, it seems very few individuals even think of the attacks. Americans go about their daily routines, never thinking of the terror that Al Quaeda inflicted upon the world, nor the thousands of lives that ended that morning. They reason that there wont be another attack as September 11th was eight long years ago. Certainly Bin Laden and his sympathizers would have entered the ring for round two by now! But after all these years, bombs haven't fallen from the skies, our subways haven't erupted in flames, and life has moved on.

Surely, the terrorist threat is long gone.

I, however, disagree with these critics, and am almost certain that there will be another terrorist attack.

While most regard September 11th as the date that changed the world, one must look at February 26th, 1993 as the true beginning of the age of American terrorism.

The average American doesn't readily recognize that date, because it isn't a frequently visited topic. It was the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the day that Ramzi Yousef and his cohorts tried to instigate mass death and paralyzing fear. Yousef, a member of a terrorist cell operating out of New Jersey, parked a rented van loaded with explosives in the basement of the World Trade Center. He hoped that it would topple one tower onto its twin, thus successfully annihilating the entire complex, taking thousands of lives in the process.

Yousef's plan failed to destroy the towers, but it did make a bold statement: terrorists were ready and willing to take American lives. It should have chilled Americans to the core. In actuality, most just regarded it as an inconvenience; the bombing disrupted the ride home for thousands of commuters. Those outside of New York quickly forgot about the attack, and those within the city boasted of the invulnerability of the World Trade Center.

America didn't learn.

Eight years later terrorists attacked again. One again, we were caught completely off-guard. Why? Because it had been eight years since the last attack. That's a very long time: just enough time for Americans to forget all the lessons they should have learned from the 1993 bombing.

And now it is eight years after the second World Trade Center attack. The terrorists have proven their patience before, and I believe they will do it again. It's one of the things they are good at.

One must realize that terrorism in 2009 will be different than in 2001, or in 1993 for that matter, solely because the world is a very different place these days. Americans are now constantly connected. Terrorists will likely have to find new ways to combat advancing technologies.

Had passengers on the hijacked aircrafts been able to use services like Twitter, or Facebook mobile, they would have had a constant connection with the world outside the aircraft. Warnings could have been sent and received. Cell phones were apparently operable on the planes, and passengers could have alerted authorities to what the terrorists meant by “we have some planes.”

Could the attacks have been thwarted? Who knows.

Terrorists, however, have undoubtedly predicated this roadblock. They will find a way to circumvent these technologies. That's another thing they are good at.

No matter what precautions you throw at them, they will find a way around it. They are, however, not invincible. The only way to stop terrorism is through awareness. Americans must remain steadfast, and not let their guard down. Eight years may seem like a long time, but in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't an assurance that future attacks have been avoided.

We don't need the Patriot Act or any other government mandated precaution. Both September 11th and February 26th could have been avoided: Yousef was especially lousy at being inconspicuous. There were several times that the attack could have been thwarted. The FBI had an informant who warned of impending doom; Yousef ordered explosives from a hospital room, and the police impounded Yousef's car (which had a trunk full of explosives) without ever realizing it.

Not to mention that Yousef himself entered the country under false pretenses, and had authorities tracked him down when he missed his initial court date, the entire scheme would have been uncovered.

Had law enforcement, civilians, and the immigration officials done their jobs properly, the attack could have been avoided. Had they learned from their mistakes, it wouldn't have happened again in 2001. The same is true today. America must remain alert, and ready, because there will be another attempt to attack American soil, and when it comes, don't be afraid...be ready.