Preparing for the future by remembering the lessons of 9/11.

• Author: Farrell, Lawrence P., Jr.
• Position: PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE - Column

Last month, while driving to work Sept. 11, one couldn't miss the large American Flags that were draped from the top of the three-building complex here in Arlington, Va., where NDIA headquarters is located.

The sight triggers a flood of memories from Sept. 11 2001--the surprise, shock, uncertainty, anguish over the fate of thousands, worry about the status of missing friends and family, and finally anger and then resolve. Americans became united as never before in the previous 50 years. All had a single focus and purpose--that was somehow to put things right and to make sure it never happened again. As the airports reopened on Friday of that week, and thousands thronged terminals, one had never seen the unity, bonding and unbelievable courtesy displayed by absolutely everyone.

The most dominant initial reaction was surprise. We were unprepared for the attack and early warning systems failed us. And not just individuals were caught unaware, but also caught short were our main institutions of government. One reads in current popular literature that some officials in the Executive Branch at the National Security Council and within the CIA were concerned about a potential attack or attacks on the United States, but it is hard to make the case that even these very few could have imagined the scope of the attack or the vulnerability of the United States. Perhaps Thomas Kean, the co-chair of the 9-11 Commission said it best: This was a "failure of imagination."

And this was not the first time the United States was surprised or came to a major undertaking unprepared. In World War I, our troops took to the battlefield with only their Springfield rifles. Our warplanes, artillery and tanks were purchased or borrowed from our allies. The United States hadn't made much of an adjustment prior to World War II, as we entered that war with inferior equipment (our highly vulnerable and out-gunned Stuart and Lee tanks against the German Tigers is only one example). But initial equipment deficiencies paled against the lack of troop training (some troops arriving in North Africa had never fired a rifle) or the selection, grooming and training of American combat leaders (the corps, division, brigade, battalion and company leaders). And despite the heroics displayed in movies like Patton, American generals and commanders performed poorly in the North African Campaign. We make much of American superiority in logistics, but that too, was sorely deficient initially...