As Americans remember those who lost their lives in an attack on the Twin Towers 13 years ago this week, the United States is preparing to launch more airstrikes against a different terrorist group.
President Barack Obama laid out his plan for combating the Islamic State Wednesday night.
Lawmakers say the country's more prepared to deal with and prevents threats than it was in 2001.
But, the war on terror is constantly evolving.
A Survivor's Story
For the past 13 years, Leeky Behrman has gotten up on Sept. 11 and put on the same suit.
"It's hard for me to believe it was 13 years ago," she says.
It's the same suit she was wearing the day her life – and the world – forever changed.
"I was sitting in my desk like this and the whole thing rocked," Behrman says. "I knew something was wrong."
Behrman recently wrote a book about surviving 9/11, as well as the tragic suicide of her sister four years later, titled The Choices We Make. She shared her story with Indiana State University students this week, on the 13th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in America's history.
Behrman was working for Morgan Stanley on the 61st floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower on 9/11. She was catching up on e-mails at her desk when a plane hit the North Tower.
"There was just a snow of white paper," Behrman says. "It was just snowing white paper. And, you couldn't really see anything else. So, we knew something was wrong. The white paper was coming from somewhere."
"That's when we saw people falling from the other building. I looked down and I'm like, there's going to be a net down there that catches them, this isn't real. There was no net."
-Leeky Berhman
Behrman and a colleague started evacuating their floor. They headed to the stairwell, along with thousands of other workers. People were talking about what had happened, saying a plane crashed into the building.
That's when Behrman knew something was seriously wrong. Because they were barely moving, she decided to exit the stairwell at the next floor so she could look out a window to see for herself.
"I walked through, went to the window and then that's when we saw people falling from the other building," she says. "I looked down and I'm like, there's going to be a net down there that catches them, this isn't real. And, there was no net. They were falling."
The group decided to try and get down using the elevators, which would take them to the exchange floor. When they got out, the room was full of wall-to-wall people. Once again, they weren't moving.
Behrman decided to take the elevator back up to the 61st floor to try going down the stairwell again. As she rode back up, her mind went to her fiancé, who headed to La Guardia that morning to catch a flight home. She was worried about his plane, so she decided to stop in her office to try calling him.
That's when the second plane came crashing into the South Tower.
"It knocked me to the ground," she says. "As I was on the ground, the ceiling next to me made this concave suction up. And, then, it came crashing down."
Behrman ran to the stairwells, where everyone was descending calmly. Eventually, she made it out of the building and walked to her apartment on the Upper West side, arriving home around 1:30 p.m.
Shortly after, she got in touch with her fiancé and was relieved to find out he, too, was OK.
Combating A New Terrorist Threat
Behrman is thankful to be alive.
And, much has changed since that day 13 years ago. Osama Bin Laden is dead, and al-Qaida, the group responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is much weaker.
But, the United States is facing new, growing threats.
"The focus today is on a group, of course, that many of us didn't even know existed until a few months ago," said Lee Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman who was vice chair of the 9/11 commission. "Until the last two or three weeks, most of us could not name the leader of the group ISIS."
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI say, at this time, ISIS doesn't represent a threat to American shores.
But, they're concerned that could change if the group remains unchecked.
"They're so incredibly dangerous, they seem to have absolutely zero concern about anything other than savagery and killing," said Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana. "They have beheaded two of our own U.S. citizens, so they have said they want to come to America and kill us, and I take them at their word."
The military is gearing up to help destroy the terrorist group. President Obama wants Congress to authorize resources that will allow the country to providing training and weapons to opposition groups on the ground. The U.S. will also engage in additional airstrikes.
"It won't be easy, it will take time, but it's something we need to do because it's the greatest threat facing the world right now," said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana. "They have the resources, the management, the control, the ability to wreak great havoc on the world affairs. Not just the economy, but people's lives, including ours."
I don't think you're going to wipe out terrorism with a few good military strikes, or even a good speech or two."
-Lee Hamilton
But, politicians say the war on terrorism can never be won with military power alone.
Groups like ISIS they say are driven by their radical beliefs, and those can be much more difficult to combat.
"They don't just quit and lie down," says Hamilton. "Our terrorist opponents here keep evolving. And, we have to keep up with the manner in which they evolve. So, it's an ongoing struggle. And, we have to be attune to it and ready to carry it on, not for a few months, but I think for a generation. I don't think you're going to wipe out terrorism with a few good military strikes or even a good speech or two. It's just going to take all of our efforts to put together a comprehensive strategy and to stay with it."
The thought of defeating another terrorist organization can seem daunting.
But, just as communities came together to honor the victims of 9/11 this week, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan says solidarity will give the country strength.
"I'm concerned about this generation seeing all the conflict in the world and in our own country," Kruzan says. "They look to our nation's capital, and they see Republican versus Democrat. They look to Ferguson, and they see black versus white. They look to Indiana, Wisconsin, and they see gay versus straight. I want us all to remember how we felt after September 11, 2001, how we unified as a nation, and live up to our commitment to never forget that."
