Risch: Don’t Forget the Lessons of 9-11

Boise (670 KBOI News) – Where were you on 9-11-01? It’s a question a lot of us asked today.

Idaho Senator Jim Risch says, like most other people that day, he was going about his daily business when he heard of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center.

“Well, I was at home, it was the morning — 7-something as I recall Boise time, 9-something East Coast time — and I think, like everyone else, when I first heard about it, I really didn’t comprehend the whole picture of what was happening.  Of course, it unfolded pretty quickly,” said Risch.

Risch said while Americans are possibly more politically divided than at any other point in our history, he believes if we were attacked again, we would once again pull together.

But he says while we remember what happened 17-years ago today, we have to remember the lessons we learned that day, and carry them into the future.

“I’m always struck how the national media looks back and talks about, gosh, how united we were, and how everyone came together.  But what comes to my mind, first and foremost, is what are we doing to see that this doesn’t happen again?”

Today also marks six years since four Americans, including US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, died in the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, and a CIA annex.  That attack was carried out by Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Sharia.