September 11, 2001. Do you know what happened and why? Do you remember? Our schools aren’t teaching about this date in history. They aren’t teaching much about history. So here’s what happened. It was a Tuesday. It’s one of the more important days in recent American history.
Related: In Remembrance of 9/11
America was at peace. We were not in any foreign war. The day began as business as usual. Nineteen terrorists, all from Muslim majority countries got on several planes in America. They were organized by a terrorist group.
Say hello to al-Qaeda. The group directions came from its leader, Osama bin Laden. The membership of the terror group was drawn from four Arab countries. The planes the terrorists boarded were cross-country flights. They were boarded on the east coast of America.
Their fuel tanks were filled to capacity with jet fuel. Within an hour after takeoff, the 19 terrorists would hijack the planes. They were to murder defenseless stewardesses and pilots. The plan: crash the planes into high profile targets. The aim: kill as many innocent people as possible in an act of shahid, martyrdom.
Those Killed
At 8:46 a.m., a hijacked flight leaving Boston crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The terrorists saw this as an international symbol of America’s economic power. Seventeen minutes later, a second hijacked plane from Boston, crashed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower. The two planes with near full jet fuel loads ignite fires. They burn hot enough to compromise the buildings’ structural integrity.
Hundreds of New York firefighters and police officers raced up the towers to rescue the victims. The buildings collapsed suddenly killing 343 firefighters, 60 police officers, and about 2,574 office workers.
A third hijacked plane, leaving Washington’s Dulles Airport, crashes into the Pentagon. About 125 deaths happen among Pentagon workers.
The passengers of a fourth hijacked plane, from Newark embarked shortly after the others. Passengers had enough time to learn of the other attacks via their cell phones. The passengers onboard decided that the nightmare would stop with them.
Unarmed, without hope of survival, they fought the terrorists. They wound up crashing the plane in an empty field in Pennsylvania. They gave their lives so that other Americans would be spared. Investigators were able to learn later the plane’s target. This plane was intending to head for either the White House or U.S. Capitol.
The terrorists who launched these attacks were Muslim. They made a number of claims about their motivations. But here is the truth: They did not murder thousands of Americans because they disagreed with America’s Middle East policy. This is not why we remember September 11, 2001.