9/11: A Synthesis Essay

During the September 11 hijackings, the worst terror attack on American soil, hundreds of lives were lost due to lack of fundamental communications between officials. 9/11 was the largest act of terror committed on American soil in which 23 radical Muslims hijacked four planes. Two planes were flown into the North and South Tower, one into the Pentagon and one drove down into a Pennsylvania field. Many argue that if there were better communication systems that were put into place that many more lives could have been saved.. According to the Associated Press, “Sept. 11 was a convergence of the worst possible problems in communication technology—a jammed commercial network made cell phone use impossible” (Sharp). Business’ lack of preparedness and poor communications between emergency responders caused the death toll to further exceed what it had to. The rapid-fire decisions that firefighters had to make due to poor communications led to many deaths. “Communications breakdowns also prevented announcements to evacuate from reaching civilians in the building. One survivor of the attacks recounted calling 911 from the 44th floor of the south tower, only to be placed on hold twice” (Roberts). According to commission director Philip Zelikow, “On the morning of September 11 the last best hope of the people in the World Trade Center lay not with national policy," but with firefighters and police officers who responded to the disaster” (Roberts). Many people were told to return to their
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Firefighters and police officers were not on the same communication network, firefighters did not receive proper warning to escape before the building collapsed, many emergency operators gave conflicting advice to workers that were trapped inside the building. Above all, this is one of the greatest reasons for the large amounts of lives lost that did not have to