Nine years ago today, six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in a bombing that was more than an act of terrorism or hatred — it was a sign of things to come.
When the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993 by a small group of foreign terrorists, most people regarded them as members of a small cell of radicals. However, the Sept. 11 bombings that brought down the Twin Towers also put terrorism in a much bigger light.
“I think that the fundamental thing that changed last September was a transformation of the terrorism problem from being a law enforcement problem to being a military problem,” said John Pike, the founder and director of GlobalSecurity.org
Pike is regarded as one the world’s leading experts on defense, space and intelligence.
“I don’t think that there would have been any way, at that time, to anticipate the number and the magnitude of attacks that have occurred since then,” said Pike. “At that time it appeared to be an isolated incident by a small group of people, rather than the beginning of an expanding pattern of attacks by a large group of people.”
The main differences between the bombing in 1993 and the attack on Sept. 11 were both the magnitude and the way in which people responded in the days and weeks after the attack.
Americans have boosted George Bush’s presidential rating above the 90th percentile, and the support by other world leaders for the American war effort are much greater now than in 1993.
“I think that there is high support for the commander in chief, rather than for George W. Bush personally. His leadership has been adequate to the task at hand but not extraordinary,” Pike said.
According to David Mason, chairman of the political science department at The University of Memphis, Bush has exceeded the level at which Pike credits him.
“I think that President Bush has done remarkably well,” Mason said. “Whether you agree with him or not you have to give him credit for having the guts to go into Afghanistan.”
Mason likened the Sept. 11 attack to the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
“The recent attacks have instigated an all-out war against terrorism, but the attack in 1993 - although far less severe - was the first blow,” Mason said.
According to Pike, the World Trade Center attack also shadowed the effects of its recent forerunner, the April, 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
“There were roughly 10 times as many people killed on September 11 as in Oklahoma City, but the reaction to the impact was much more than 10 times greater. It was one hundred times greater, a thousand times greater.”
Mason said he believes the 1993 attack was handled appropriately, although some critics now say it should have been more closely examined as a precursor of things to come.
“The response was pretty much measured by the extent of the damage, which changed a lot simply by the degree of the attack,” said Mason. “They did arrest the people involved in the (1993) bombing and brought them to trial, and I think, at that time, it was considered an appropriate response.”
