9/11: Inside Air Force One

I've seen this doc more than once but it's good to revisit on the anniversary of 9/11. It really gives a sense of the import of what happened, how much worse things could have been, and first hand accounts of that day, from the President's staff to the reporters on the plane to President Bush himself. (For those who say our country was so unprepared, I say that's an unfair analogy - they did the best they could with the intel they had at the time. How does one prepare for an attack so evil it was beyond the imagination of rational people? Who would have dreamt such things? Only those who are truly consumed and controlled by evil themselves.) 9/11 was a tragedy that, even after 21 years, is still shocking and horrific and painful to hear about and remember. But remember we must, and learn from our the past, so it will not be repeated. Great documentary.

I had read an article about this documentary when it was released and am happy to have had the chance to watch it. The fog of war is on full display here, and of course hindsight being 20/20 it is easy to criticize all the things that went so terribly wrong. It is almost hard to believe we were so ill-prepared. My main purpose of writing this review is that at one point one of the Intelligence Aids is talking about that the President's one main job is to keep Americans safe, and in this situation it is clear there was a huge failure to do that, and it is possible it could have been averted. We'll never know. But as I sit here in the spring of 2020 with a viral epidemic ripping through the country, I have to say the current President is equally a failure at keeping Americans safe.