Jennifer Rush Destiny

10 Years After 9/11: What Have We Learned?

I recall so proudly our immediate collective responses to that day. Less cynicism. More sincerity. More seriousness in our public discussion. Greater awareness of what is truly important — and how fragile it all can be. A determination to defeat those who committed the murders and those who supported them. And a widespread belief that, in responding to the crisis, we might become a stronger, more united country.

Not much of this seems to have lasted. We have not suffered another major attack, and al-Qaeda seems to be seriously weakened — both great accomplishments. It also seems that the Libyans are grateful to us for helping them get rid of Gadaffi. But overall, given the stakes, it strikes me that we still have not learned very much about just war, or how to engage the Muslim world, or how to confront the global jihadist threat. Domestically, we seem to be pretty much as we were on Sept. 10, 2001, only more so. Enough cynicism in the land to choke a horse. Partisanship so ugly that it makes normal people sick. An almost complete absence of seriousness in our public debate.

What does this mean? Maybe it means that the experience of national unity, like glory, is fleeting, and that it takes more than we realized to keep us focused on a shared goal. Or maybe it suggests that muddling through is often as good as it gets.

When the 9/11 attacks hit, America's military interrogators already knew that rapport-based interrogation works. Those of us, including myself, who became interrogators after 9/11 learned this lesson too. We were trained in rapport-based interrogation skills and we used them with success.

Today, the U.S. Army Field Manual 2-22-3 and its predecessor 34-52 , which contain the guidelines we used for post-9/11 military interrogation, are readily available online. They are no secret.

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Destiny

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Jennifer, The Unauthorized Biography

The way things ought to be