Why 9/11 Happened

The attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 were the direct result of the failure of US agencies, ranging from the White House to airport security, to recognize vulnerabilities present in the various symptoms. The reason why these vulnerabilities were not acknowledged and repaired is that these various agencies were trapped in a cognitive dissonance cycle of thinking. After the Cold War, terrorism was seen as a regional problem (9/11 Commission, 92). The majority of terrorist groups were either groups sponsored by governments or militants trying to create governments (i.e. Palestine Liberation Organization). As a result, the tactics used for fighting terrorism were centralized mostly in the Middle East and were restricted to task forces and field training by the US. The US ground forces were almost never used and, when used, were limited to small task force type missions. Furthermore, a majority of terrorist incidents prior to 9/11 usually ended in negotiations (9/11 Commission, 94). Because the government felt that it had a strong understanding of how terrorist situations occurred in the post cold war period, warning signs on the eve on 9/11 were ignored. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had a similar point of view in regards to security. The system they had in place by 9/11 was seemingly successful, for they had avoided hostage situations for 14 years. Furthermore, airlines were under increasing pressure to lower the cost of flights and make checking in and out of airports more efficient, which naturally led to security problems (Easterbrook, 164). The FAA and major airlines felt that there was no reason to fix a functioning system, and was powerless to make changes anyway due to economic pressures. An uncomfortable state of tension is caused when contradictions occur within the cognitive system. People are therefore motivated to reduce or eliminate this tension state, which is known as cognitive dissonance (Larson, 29). For