That is what is most remembered and feared about the attacks, the gaping crater at Ground Zero, created by the collapse of a once invincible symbol, which led directly to the false perception, the Positive Illusion, that al-Qaeda possessed the wherewithal to truly threaten the existence of our society. The attacks, however, were not particularly well planned and could’ve been much more tactically effective.

Although approximately 3,000 Americans died on 9/11, the two planes that struck the Twin Towers hit at 8:46 AM and 9:04 AM, well before the towers were near their combined capacity of somewhere over 40,000. This demonstrates either a miscalculation of societal rhythm, or the fact that thousands upon thousands of fatalities was never the goal of the attacks. It makes much more sense to assume that the early hour of the attacks was chosen to ensure the planes wouldn’t be crowded and so would be the easiest to control – to ensure that the attack would occur.

Since each plane was below capacity by at least 150 passengers, it’s generally assumed that the terrorists chose their time because they assumed a sparsely filled plane would present the least chance of revolt against the hijackers. But this demonstrates a striking misunderstanding of the behavioral tendencies of the average American when it came to hijacking airplanes, another lapse which shines light into the shadowy Positive Illusion of deviousness cast by the attacks.

The terrorists were clearly ignorant of two key elements of the American psyche as far as hijacking airplanes goes. First is that for most Americans their only personal encounter with hijacking – Hollywood – conditions them to wait for a hijacked plane to land so that Bruce Willis or Wesley Snipes blow through a hole in the ceiling and cap every terrorist between the eyes with an large-caliber machine gun set on fully-automatic. Although it’s impossible to get an exact statistic, it’s hardly a stretch to argue the number of passengers who had seen either Die Hard II or Passenger 157 would be large enough to get the rest of those on board to relax and follow their lead of patiently waiting for the their heroic and headstrong rescuer to arrive.

Second is the fact that during the 1960′s twenty-one American flights within the continental United States were hijacked and peacefully resolved. So any passenger who was either at least fifty-years-old or had any knowledge of that decade’s history would expect a hijacked plane to be directed to somewhere without any of the passengers being harmed. These hijackings were so prevalent that they led to American pilots flying in the southern states actually carrying maps of Havana’s Jose Martin Airport, so that they would be familiar with the airport they’d likely be forced to land in.⁶

If the terrorists has any knowledge of our country’s experience with hijackings, then they would have known what gave them the ability to use the planes as missiles was not few passengers, but the fact American passengers had been conditioned to wait until a hijacked plane lands.

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In reality, the results achieved were not a result of truly careful and thoughtful planning, although this is what has been endlessly argued by sources in the government and media fooled by the Positive Illusion created by the attack. The simple fact that the passengers onboard American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were caught by surprise is what allowed the initial assault to occur at all. The plot is portrayed as brilliantly sinister and devious not because it actually was, but as the result of a Positive Illusion. The informed passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 – carrying the smallest load that morning of only 45 passengers – selflessly gave their lives after they heard from friends and relatives what had happened in New York and prevented their plane from reaching its target.