Historical Context for United 93
This special project aims to provide a factual backgrounder in response to the official website of United 93. That website features an article entitled, “Conflicts Past and Present,” and purports to answer the question, “Why Do They Hate America ?”
The article:
- promotes the flawed version of history that is exactly what Osama bin Laden wants to hear preached alongside a movie about September 11th
- is replete with factual errors; clearly, neither a history book nor a timeline were consulted
- misrepresents the nature of jihad
- does not explain why al Qaeda attacked us
- is a disservice to those whose memory we should honor and to those serving on the frontlines in a global war we did not instigate. We need clarity at home if we are to win.
Some of the myths promulgated by this article are also espoused by many others. It is our hope that by challenging this article, we can help bring clarity to a much bigger and more important debate.
This is not a fact-check on the film. We support the film. David Beamer, whose son Todd was one of the heroes on that flight, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “Paul Greengrass and Universal set out to tell the story of United Flight 93 on that terrible day in our nation's history. They set about the task of telling this story with a genuine intent to get it right--the actions of those on board and honor their memory. Their extensive research included reaching out to all the families who had lost loved ones on United Flight 93 as the first casualties of this war. And Paul and his team got it right.”
We defer to those families and hope every American sees this film, but when they do, we hope they do not trust the film's website to explain what happened on September 11th and why we remain at war today.
