A Lot to Remember on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

There is a lot to remember on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC.

Of course, we also remember the brave passngers on Flight 93 in the skies over Shanksville, Pennsylvania and Seal Team 6 in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

But there are a lot more attacks to remember:

Notable Al Qaeda Attacks
Place	Method	Date	Killed	Injured
2 hotels in Aden, Yemen	Bombs	12/29/1992	2	7
World Trade Center in NYC	Truck bomb	2/26/1993	6	1,042
Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran	Bomb	6/20/1994	11	200
Flight 434 from Manila to Tokyo	Luggage bomb	12/11/1994	1	10
Khobar, Saudi Arabia	Truck bomb	6/25/1996	20	372
Reputed assassination attempt on then President Bill Clinton in Manila, Phillipines	Roadside bomb	11/25/1996	0	0
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya	Car bomb	8/7/1998	223	4,000+
LAX plotter arrested entering U.S. from Canada in Port Angeles, Washington	Car bomb	12/14/1999	0	0
USS Cole in port at Aden, Yemen	Boat bomb	10/12/2000	17	39
24 Christian Churches in Indonesia	Bomb	12/24/2000	19	120
World Trade Center in NYC and the Pentagon	Hijacked airplanes	9/11/2001	2,977	6,000+
Flight 63 from Paris, France to Miami, Florida	Shoe bomb	12/22/2001	0	3
Kuta, Bali, Indonesia	Backpack and car bombs	10/12/2002	202	240
Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia.	Car bomb	8/5/2003	12	150
Instanbul, Turkey	Truck bomb	11/15/2003 11/20/2003	47	700+
Madrid, Spain	Backpack bombs	3/11/2004	192	2,050
Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.	Van bomb	9/9/2004	9	150+
London, United Kingdom	Backpack bombs	7/7/2005	53	700
Bali, Indonesia	Backpack bombs	10/1/2005	20	129
3 hotels in Amman, Jordan	Belt bombs	11/9/2005	60	115
Islamabad, Pakistan	Dump truck bomb	9/20/2008	54	266
Mumbai, India	Shootings and bombings	11/26/2008	154	308
2 hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia	Bombing	7/17/2009	7	53
Fort Hood, Texas	Shootings	11/5/2009	13	29
Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan	Underwear bomb	12/25/2009	0	2
Times Square NYC	Car bomb	5/1/2010	0	0
Attempted assassination of UK MP Stephen Timms in Beckton, East London, United Kingdom	Knife	5/14/2010	0	1
Air cargo bound for Chicago, Illinois	Printer cartridge bombs	10/29/2010	0	0
Killeen, Texas	Guns and homemade bomb	7/27/2011	0	0
Total for these 30 attacks			4,099	16,686+

Attacks by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq are too numerous to list and this list is no doubt in other ways incomplete.

Lessons for the United States:

(1) Al Qaeda is an organization and also a movement. If some of the attacks on the list were not carried out by the organization, they were carried out by the movement.

(2) The Al Qaeda movement shows no signs of abating and the United States is not its only target. Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead, but Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anwar al-Awlaki are not.

(3) Constant vigilance is the only effective defense, and even that is not going to be 100% effective. That's the reality even if it's not the kind of closure Americans crave.