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Deleted ScenesDeleted Scene #14Chapter Five: The New Ordering PrincipleSection: Overtaken By EventsCommentary: This fourteenth "deleted scene" was my original opening paragraph for the section. Mark Warren cut it because -- I believe -- he thought it was extraneous information and too self-referential. I include it here because it remains an issue I am sensitive to: the notion that anyone can predict a "9/11." Deleted Scene: Dreaming of 9/11 Before It Happened[TEXT BEGINS] When the staff of Esquire named me one of their "Best & Brightest" in 2002, they came awfully close to suggesting that "The Strategist," as I was dubbed, had predicted 9/11. Needless to say, I was more than a bit worried about anyone getting that impression, because even though it was true on some levels, it was wildly exaggerative on several others. In most people's minds, when you say "9/11," they think of the actual day, the terrorist strikes, and all those deaths. But when you say "9/11" to a strategic planner like me, the strikes themselves are only a very small portion of the scenario that results. It is a lot like talking about Pearl Harbor, which was both an attack and the trigger for America's entry into World War II. The attack itself was one thing, the aftermath another. Before 9/11, I had spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of scenarios would result from a catastrophic event being visited upon the United States, one that would expose both our vulnerabilities and strengths in the age of globalization. 9/11 the event shocked the hell out of me, 9/11 the aftermath was something I had dreamed about for years. [TEXT ENDS]. |
Putnam, 2004 |
