I’m reading, as you know, the 9/11 Commission Report. It’s emimently readable, but nothing like reading fiction. In fiction, each detail contributes to the story. In the report, there are many details that don’t contribute to the story. They are just facts. And way too many characters.
Perhaps most striking to me today is the account of the pilot-highjackers and their preparations for the attack. They came to the U.S. a year or two in advance to learn English and attand flight school. Two of the terrorists stayed in San Deigo for a period of time. They proved terrible students, and never did learn English. It must have been lonely, having cut off all communication with their families. One of them had an especially tough time transitioning to the United States. When he received work that his first child had been born, it was the last straw. He went AWOL and returned to his home country (Yemen, I believe). Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the famous mastermind behind the plot, was furious. He wanted to kick this man off of the team. Bin Laden disagreed, and the would-be father was eventually ‘returned’ to the team. I wonder what his wife thought. I wonder if she knew what her husband was going to do. Twisted ideals or no, there’s something elemental in the love of a wife that must have cried out at her husband’s willingess to martyr himself for his faith in a brutal act of savagery.
Before today, I’d never thought about the humans behind the attack; I’d only thought of the acts. Truly, looking at their thumbnail-sized low-quality photos printed in duotone on the pages of a book was a moving experience for me. I just stared at those pictures and wondered what kind of zeal must have possessed these men that they would plan for several years to die. Two years is a long time to know the date of your death, and it’s a long time to lose your nerve or change your mind. I wonder whether any of them changed their minds, or had to talk each other back into following the plan.
Fascinating to put faces to the savagery.