In September 11 2001, America was under attack. The citizens were horrified and worried about their safety as a nation. The Homeland Security Council was also created to work hand in hand with the National Security Council. Congress also approved formation of the Department of Homeland Security (Winkler, 2005).
It was also important to investigate what prudent steps can be taken to minimize America's exposure to such terror attacks. National funds had to be invested heavily to make the plan successful. It was also of great importance to review the missed steps in averting such risks. In late 2002, through a legislation by congress, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (9/11 Commission) was formed. It was an independent and bipartisan commission which was tasked with coming up with an account of all the developments that surrounded the 9/11 attacks. The commission was also tasked with describing the challenges faced in preventing the attacks and coming up with recommendations to avert future attacks (Winkler, 2005).
The commission observed that there were some complications that America faced in anticipation and prevention of the attacks. Some of these complications include:.
The first main challenge was state and bureaucratic failures. After the Cold War, the US failed to adapt any new kind of terrorism. During the Cold War, the threat was from great nations but after it had narrowed down to weak nations, individuals and non-state groups. Policy makers never thought that terrorists could ever strike home. It was only after the World Trade Centre attack in 1993 that they realized the magnitude of foreign terrorism (Copeland, 2007). The US was using the same old tactics to solve terrorism and little was done to reform security agencies. There was a systemic setback to intelligence gathering and sharing among government agencies. Pentagon could not effectively share information with the CIA and the FBI.