Essay We Are Safer Post-9/11

Fourteen years ago, everyone would remember this day, September 11. After ten years, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and James Clapper wrote an opinion essay, We’re Safer Post -9/11, and published it on a Website USA Today on September 8, 2011. They want to convince readers to believe the USA is much safer than ever.
Maybe someone may not know who Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and James Clapper are. In 2009, Eric Holder became Attorney General in America, and he is the first African American Attorney General in history (Eric Holder, p.1). Janet Napolitano was secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama (2009-2013) (Janet Napolitano, p.1). And James Clapper is now the fourth Director of National Intelligence (dni.gov). These basic information let us know that they have a very high authority to talk about the improvement after

9/11.
First, the authors point out the improvement of security in the whole America. Before 2001, they were a lack of focus on the security on the country inside. Instead, they focused on the potential threats outside of America. It shows that America government didn’t really worry about the risk before anything happened. Before 9/11, they minimized the risk of the terror attack; after that happened, they improved the security. What if someday there is a disaster, which could be avoided if there is really good prevention, and they minimized the risk again, are they going to say they will improve themselves, but not do everything as well as they can to prevent every bad thing happen?
On the other hand, according to the essay Holder, Napolitano, and Clapper published, in paragraph six, they show that they are going to work together to train agency, police officer, etc. to avoid any terrorist events, and protect all citizens from attacks. These three writers have really high position in government; therefore, although they have the authority to say they are improving, they might have bias and subject opinions on their training way or result. They told us that they have made enhancement in the counterterrorism ability. They should find some lower position government department to give some example instead of saying how good they are. Such as interviewing some normal police officers how they are doing well in their training and how the training works for them to protect citizens.
According to IBT Pulse, after 9/11, there are at least six things the United States has changed: Airport security, Immigration, Domestic Spying, Trust in the Government, Tourism, and American Psyche. In airport security, everyone has to take off their shoes when they are passing the security check, and also no one is allowed to bring and liquid on the plane. Tourists, students, and any people who want to get into America are becoming harder to get a Visa. In addition, when they are in immigration center, all the fingerprints and other Biometric data will be collected. On the other hand, all the phone may be under surveillance by NSA after 9/11, because USA government wants to know there is no spy in the Nation. After 9/11, the trust to the government had been increased because they did very well to handle 9/11 terrorist attack. However, it has been decrease after a few years later because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fortunately, after this attack, more people want to see and know more about these two tower’s history and information, it brings NYC Tourism. According to the speaking from Charles B. Strozier, a psychoanalyst from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City told Psychology Today, "Despite the technological advantages, relative safety, and general happiness, there's also a bit of fear. Beneath everything there’s a profound malaise about life and uncertainty about the future, because now we’ve opened up a new dimension that reverses the natural sequence of how things have always been"(Poladian, 2015, p.1).
After concluding Poladian’s essay in IBTimes, we know that America has improved in certain ways.

Poladian shows us the real-life situation. The things American has changed in 14 years. Poladian is only an American citizen and one of the reporters in IBTimes. Although he has no authority to say the army in American has been enhanced, he has the authority to say how safe he is and all American citizens are. Comparing to the authors Holder, Janet, and James, although they have authority to say how well they did to improve everything in military, they may have their way, which is bias, to see their “improvement.
Furthermore, writers use some example that how America’s security department defended terrorist events and improved in past ten years. Such as the Department of Homeland Security, it has blocked at last 86 terrorist activities. However, they didn’t give us any source to define the credibility of this information, although they may be true. Unlike Poladian’s essay, he provides some sources to help us find more information about the changes in different aspects, such as a quote from psychoanalyst, the change about immigration,

etc.
In the conclusion, they said that “We have created a much stronger framework for managing threats to our nation.” (Holder, Napolitano, and Clapper, 2011, 707) They have been training and improving their power to keep people safety in that ten years. And also writers said they would never stop their improvement and still have to improve. In the end, they said that their success is not from themselves only, their success is depended on American citizens. If American citizens stand out and try to against the terrorism, don’t feel afraid of them, America will fight back to terror instead of letting them fighting America.