The images of Sept. 11 resonate with us all. Morbidly glued to our televisions, radios and computers, we watched and heard the horrific events unfold. Employees jumping from deathly heights. Frantic phone calls, searching for loved ones. Burning buildings tumbling to the ground. National shell-shock set in as victims and families mourned the loss.

In the aftermath, President Bush declared that a new kind of war would be fought to find those responsible — a war on terrorism. He was deliberately vague in defining its parameters, calling it a war without boundaries and battlefields. He vowed, however, to find those responsible, at one point adopting a cowboy mantra of “dead or alive.”

Under the umbrella of fighting terrorism, the United States has created a new government Department of Homeland Security, bombed Afghanistan and severely curtailed civil liberties. Yet, not until Monday did it host a public hearing to debate the role of intelligence oversights and to determine what actions could be taken to prevent future attacks.

Yes, Monday, March 31, 2003. More than a year and a half after the World Trade Center collapsed, the Pentagon went up in flames and a field in Pennsylvania became a burial ground.

President Bush and his colleagues have fought tooth and nail to resist the creation of a commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks.

Only after increased pressure from families of victims was the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks in the United States created late last year, but not before Vice-president Dick Cheney made a personal phone call to Tom Daschle, asking him to limit the investigation because it might take resources away from the war on terrorism. Daschle refused, saying that the American people have a right to know what happened.

And they do. As do the families of victims. The commission, if it sees fit, may refer criminal findings to prosecutors, and the hearings will include accounts from members of emergency and security services and relatives of those who died in the attack, according to BBC.

But why did it take so long?

And why did President Bush, who vowed to find those guilty of the attacks, oppose the creation of the commission?

Surely a war on terrorism should include a comprehensive look at both the nature of the events and methods of preventing future attacks. But oddly, both Bush and Cheney saw it as separate, an investigation that could drain resources from what they considered to be the war on terror.

Perhaps they took the word “war” a bit too literally, because it’s going to take more than patriotic posturing, fire power and civilian deaths to uncover the reasons for Sept. 11.

Editorial Board: Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Ayrel Clark, Charlie Weaver, Katie List