“We Thought It Would Last 6 Months, Not 20 Years”

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CChris Williamson
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00:00:00i'll talk to guys or guys will ask me guys that were in the military like before september 11th
00:00:04after vietnam before september 11th they did whatever 1994 to 1999 and they feel so bad and
00:00:11so guilty that they didn't serve in combat and you know i always tell them hey you did what your
00:00:15country needed to do at the time you know like thank you for your service and that's but but
00:00:19guys do feel guilty about that what was happening then from a military perspective nothing nothing
00:00:23really yeah i mean i was in the entire 90s and we didn't do barely anything we did like shipboardings
00:00:29or over in the persian gulf people that were smuggling whatever stuff in and out of iraqs or
00:00:34we did shipboardings over there to like get control of those vessels but that was pretty much like the
00:00:38real the real missions that we were doing at the time and it was just not that big of a deal so what
00:00:43happens when 2001 comes along like what what did that feel like to go from seeing this period of
00:00:50relative i mean as peaceful as the military with guns can be very peaceful and then there is a very
00:00:56large or two very large pistols that get yeah yeah no it was it was uh total totally different yeah total
00:01:01game changer for everybody yeah overnight what was waking up mid-september like um well we just knew
00:01:08i mean everybody knew that we were going to war now if you would have asked me at the time would we be
00:01:14what you're gonna be at war for two decades i wouldn't have thought that we all thought that much like
00:01:20some of the other sort of operations that had taken place whether it's panama or grenada something like
00:01:24that these things lasted a few days even the first gulf war over in 72 hours i was so i was the the
00:01:31navy had sent me to college at the time so i was in college and i was all distraught because i thought
00:01:35i was gonna miss this war you know i want to be a commander my whole life you know there's nothing
00:01:39going on in the 90s when i'm in i know that we're all going to war and it's probably gonna be over
00:01:42very shortly and i'm not going to be a part of it so i actually called the guy that was in charge of
00:01:47assigning us to wherever whatever seal team you're going to go to and i said hey sir you know please
00:01:51get me out of here send me back to a seal team i'll finish college later and he he said hey this is
00:01:56going to last a long time and i didn't believe him he goes this is going to last a really long time and
00:02:00i was like no it's not he goes i'll finish college and i'll get you to a team and sure enough i
00:02:05mean he got me to a team a little while later and sure enough he got me to a team that was deploying next
00:02:10luckily thankfully to iraq but even my first deployment to iraq i thought oh this is gonna
00:02:14be over you know we'll be i'm so lucky i'm get to be here and do do my job for six months right now
00:02:21because it's probably gonna be over then probably that was 2003 2004 now we get into 2005 you start
00:02:27saying oh this is gonna be on for a long time and then you know it lasted for two decades when did you
00:02:32realize that it was gonna be more than just a couple of a couple of years i would say the middle of 2005
00:02:38that's when the news you started really hearing the shift in the news that they were saying that
00:02:42this is an insurgency now you know as opposed to just a regime hey we're gonna take out the regime
00:02:46and walk away which could we could have done but instead now we're gonna stay there we're gonna try
00:02:51and turn them into you know a democratic country it's like okay that might not be a great idea okay
00:02:58and now you start to have the insurgency which is al-qaeda leadership starts coming in from other
00:03:02countries and they're starting to run and direct and finance operations inside iraq and the local
00:03:09populace again you know there's so many complexities to this but you know the the the shias are the
00:03:17majority people there and it's been run by the sunnis for a long time so it doesn't take much to
00:03:22sort of spark a spark friction between those two elements because they already have bad blood between
00:03:27each other and of course they al-qaeda doesn't want america to have any success over there so they do
00:03:33their best to spark that conflict between the sunnis and the shias it's a disaster yeah well 9 11
00:03:40is maybe second only to the atomic bombs is like very small period of time that just totally changed
00:03:48the course of the future yeah yeah for sure for sure um and i would say even the atomic bombs were
00:03:54less because that that was you know the direction that we were going in we were going in that direction
00:03:58if we would have if we didn't have atomic bombs that time we would have landed on mainline japan
00:04:02and we would have we would have been a costly victory but we were going to win so i would say that
00:04:07yeah 9 11 was even more of a radical such a left turn yeah such a left turn were you more sunni or shia
00:04:14so it depends on how you look at it the the the sunnis and the shias you know it's it's one of
00:04:21those scenarios where we worked alongside the sunnis but the shias made up the vast majority of the army
00:04:28of the of the iraqi army so you kind of had to you know you kind of had to do both you kind of had to
00:04:33get get along with both of them reasonable yeah yeah both guy yeah you kind of got to get along with
00:04:38both it's crazy i mean it's 25th anniversary is in a month yeah what for 9 11. i don't know it's
00:04:46called an anniversary of a tragedy what would you call it maybe birthday memorial
00:04:54maybe memorial just call it 25 like 250. yeah okay like america 25 yeah memorial i guess but
00:05:00make 25 merch but i remember before i moved out here it was the back end of uh 21 and uh i was
00:05:07watching these awesome documentaries netflix did just the best like the archive footage even though you've
00:05:12got such a constrained amount they keep on finding or being able to remaster or make stuff a little bit
00:05:17better and uh this is as i'm sort of dreaming of coming out to america and when you're anywhere that
00:05:23hasn't been involved in living in manhattan thinking about it it almost feels unreal it's like watching
00:05:27somebody play a video game right kind of yeah and because it's such a insane city and the density's so
00:05:33high and then obviously the incident's just like so crazy and now that i've spent time lots of time
00:05:40in new york and i love manhattan i think it's so cool thinking about that thing happening like that
00:05:46actually happened in a city that i've spent tons of time in that i've walked around freedom tower
00:05:53i've seen you know ground zero all that stuff that must have just been for the people that were there
00:05:59that must have been like one of the most across all of human history what other days have been more
00:06:07insane to have seen something like that happen yeah so crazy yeah seeing a plane crash into a
00:06:12fucking building two yeah that's crazy yeah i mean obviously pearl harbor was a huge was a huge impact
00:06:19as well but again that we were leaning in that direction anyways you know it was like there's a
00:06:24lot of isolationists in america obviously during that time but you know there's also people that were
00:06:28like hey we got to do something and that that tipped the scales but yeah 911 was just you know we were all
00:06:34just carrying on with normal stuff but it's like a and then boom it's shocking incident at pearl harbor and
00:06:41with the atomic bombs but not a shocking trajectory this is a total just yeah like off-road left turn
00:06:49thing so yeah it's it's wild that being said i it's so fascinating to see now in retrospect what that
00:06:56did it changed travel it changed the entire sort of geopolitical landscape it yeah i wonder how
00:07:04different the world would be if that if that hadn't happened it would be like literally a different
00:07:07fucking universe different universe yeah i mean my life obviously everybody that i know would you know
00:07:13who knows what their lives would be like you just still been in college maybe just keep do you guys
00:07:21know anyone that was there in manhattan during the only story i've heard is that uh you know lewis j
00:07:26gomez yeah comedian he rollerbladed away he was on rollerblades and he rollerbladed like away from new
00:07:32york city faster than he's ever rolled yeah he's just it's a true story apparently he like he wasn't
00:07:37like at ground zero but he was there when it got inside and he just wheelies could have helped
00:07:41wheelies could have helped he had rollerblades he apparently rollerbladed yeah like super far it was like
00:07:46ah just rollerbladed away it was go man speed skating away from it it's one of my favorite stories
00:07:53talk about ptsd you know it's like the big biggest day in history and you get caught on
00:08:00it's like a bad dream nightmare where were you and i was just rollerblading around
00:08:06having e-pads on and elbow pads and a helmet wrist guards yeah oh you are safe you know michael jackson
00:08:12was supposed to have a meeting on the top of one of the twin towers on 911 but he slept in can we
00:08:17confirm this sounds like some bullshit let me give you an even better one let me give you an even
00:08:22better boy that was never there seth mcfarlane guy that uh started family guy yeah was supposed to
00:08:30get on a flight on the morning of 9 11 and his assistant miss booked the time on his schedule he
00:08:35arrived at the airport but missed the plane so the plane left that was the plane that hit the south
00:08:39tower really yeah so he bought his assistant uh rolls-royce as a thank you for having gotten him
00:08:45late it might be right very only uh michael jackson was definitely in new york city the answer is
00:08:51possibly but not definitely established his brother said in his memoir and in interviews michael was
00:08:56scheduled to attend meetings at the world trade center that morning but overslept that looks good enough
00:09:00for me if you and your partner sleep best at different temperatures it is time that you joined us in the
00:09:04modern world and got an eight sleep i've always wanted to try eight sleep uh which side of the bed
00:09:08do you prefer i usually take left but i am flexible you're not sleeping in my bed mate oh when you said
00:09:14partner i just assumed i meant a romantic partner you know of course eight sleeps pod five is a smart
00:09:21mattress cover that actively cools or heats each side of the bed by up to 20 degrees so if you run hot
00:09:26and your partner runs cold you're both happy so hypothetically if your bro was sleeping over what
00:09:31side of the bed would you prefer i'm not 12. there are no sleepovers okay best of all it's got upgraded
00:09:38sensors that run health checks while you're asleep tracking things like abnormal heartbeats or sudden
00:09:43hrv changes what if i just slept at the end of your bed like a dog did your wife kick you out again she
00:09:48did fine okay yes pod five it cools it heats it elevates and it's clinically proven to give you up to one
00:09:57hour more of quality sleep every night and if you're still on the fence they have a 30-day sleep
00:10:01trial plus they ship internationally right now you can get up to 350 off the pod five by going to the
00:10:06link in the description below or heading to eight sleep.com slash modern wisdom and using the code
00:10:11modern wisdom at checkout that's e-i-g-h-t sleep.com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom at checkout
00:10:18thank you very much for tuning in if you enjoyed that clip you will love the full-length episode in all
00:10:22of its glory right here come on press it

Key Takeaway

The September 11 attacks triggered a radical two-decade geopolitical and military shift that dismantled peacetime expectations and fundamentally altered modern global history.

Highlights

  • The 1990s military experienced a period of relative peace and inactivity prior to the September 11 attacks.

  • Military deployments to Iraq initially lasted for six-month increments under the assumption the conflict would conclude quickly.

  • The nature of the Iraq War shifted in mid-2005 from regime removal to managing an insurgency involving al-Qaeda leadership and domestic sectarian friction.

  • Seth MacFarlane missed the flight on the plane that hit the south tower on September 11 due to a misbooked schedule by his assistant.

  • Michael Jackson was scheduled to attend meetings at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11 but overslept.

Timeline

Peacetime Military and the 9/11 Turning Point

  • Military service during the 1990s involved minimal combat operations beyond routine shipboardings in the Persian Gulf.
  • The September 11 attacks served as an unprecedented, radical left turn that completely altered the trajectory of the military and the world.
  • Military personnel expected initial post-9/11 deployments to last only a brief period similar to historical short conflicts like Panama or Grenada.

Veterans of the 1990s often feel unwarranted guilt for missing combat, as active missions during that decade were restricted to minor maritime boarding operations. The events of September 11 shattered this tranquil era overnight, transforming a peaceful military stance into an active wartime footing. Deployment expectations anticipated a rapid conclusion lasting a few days or six months at most, completely discounting the multi-decade duration that followed.

Evolution of the Iraq War and Insurgency

  • The conflict transitioned into an entrenched insurgency by the middle of 2005.
  • Al-Qaeda leadership entered Iraq to direct operations and fuel sectarian friction between the Sunni minority and Shia majority.
  • Military strategy shifted from a brief regime removal to an extended nation-building effort.

Initial military objectives focused strictly on removing the existing regime and quickly departing. By mid-2005, news reports and ground realities confirmed a permanent strategic shift toward managing a complex insurgency. Foreign al-Qaeda leadership exploited existing domestic friction points between Sunnis and Shias, turning the region into a protracted two-decade engagement.

Historical Impact and September 11 Anomalies

  • The September 11 attacks disrupted the global landscape more radically than the atomic bombs during World War II.
  • Comedian Lewis J. Gomez rollerbladed away from the disaster zone in lower Manhattan during the event.
  • Seth MacFarlane avoided boarding the doomed flight that hit the south tower because his assistant misbooked his travel schedule.

Comparing historical shocks, the atomic bombs aligned with an existing trajectory toward a costly victory over mainland Japan, whereas September 11 represented an abrupt, shocking off-road departure from normal life. Eyewitness and survivor accounts highlight surreal survival stories, including rapid escapes on rollerblades and missed flights that spared notable public figures from the disaster.

Sleep Technology and Environmental Optimization

  • Michael Jackson overslept and missed meetings scheduled at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11.
  • The Eight Sleep Pod 5 smart mattress cover actively cools or heats each side of the bed independently by up to 20 degrees.
  • Integrated upgraded sensors track health metrics such as abnormal heartbeats and sudden heart rate variability changes during sleep.

Biographical records and family memoirs confirm Michael Jackson's missed morning meetings at the World Trade Center due to oversleeping. Transitioning from historical retrospectives, modern sleep optimization technology addresses temperature disparities between partners using active thermal regulation. Advanced mattress covers incorporate clinical-grade biometric sensors to monitor core health metrics and improve overall sleep duration.

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