On that day The definitive timeline of 9/11

Millions of Americans watched the tragedy of 9/11 unfold in real time, whether on television or in New York, DC, or rural Pennsylvania. Arkin has compiled a detailed account of the events of that day related to the attacks, resulting in one of the most important historical documents of the year. He goes into exacting, sometimes minute details of the activities and thoughts of the major players of the day, from the terrorists to first responders, and more. Arkin builds his minute-by-minute account with a cool yet engaging journalistic style that has the added result of imbuing the narrative with growing levels of suspense--despite the fact that most people know how the main story works out. Arkin also has the advantage of twenty years of investigations from which to draw obscure but fascinating facts. For some the result may be too much information. In the final analysis, though, for tragic events like 9/11, there can be no such thing as too much truth.

A damning account of the federal government's response to 9/11 and the two-decade war that ensued. National security expert and commentator Arkin works from a vast, meticulously assembled, million-word dossier he has assembled on the 9/11 attackers and from the government record to deliver a chronicle that reveals several essential institutional breakdowns. One was the failure to honor "continuity of government" regulations that require those in the constitutional succession to the presidency to travel to safe locations in the event of attack. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert complied while, "when the condition presented itself for the government to take action to increase its survival, leaders brushed the apparatus aside." Another failure was to communicate effectively with both the nation's allies and Russia. American military movements following 9/11 were so sudden and inexplicable that Russia interpreted them as signaling the outbreak of war between the superpowers. Meanwhile, Arkin notes, Donald Rumsfeld scribbled a revealing note just hours after the attacks: "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough to hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden]. Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." Clearly, then, the Bush administration was looking for a pretext to go to war with Iraq. The war that ensued, under the larger rubric of the war on terror, was undeclared. Even the rules of engagement on the day of the attack and its aftermath were ambiguous and variously interpreted--though Arkin reveals that it was generally understood that U.S. military aircraft were free to fire on civilian airliners suspected of posing threats. Whatever the case, Arkin writes in this relentlessly revealing narrative, 9/11 ushered in a war that has not stopped since, "evidence of the overreaction of a frustrated and humiliated Washington." Nothing has improved in the years since, and the author clearly shows how the government's failures on 9/11 were only recapitulated with Covid-19 as an exercise in feckless action. A maddening, essential study in misinformation, jingoism, bad intelligence, and other hallmarks of the recent American past. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.