More American civilians died on 9/11/2001 than 7/12/1941. There would be much civilian death in the Philippines and elsewhere, however.
July 12th, 1941?
Yes, but some of us fully expected it, with the history of attacks (suppose 1993 WTC had succeeded, for example). The author shouldn't use his own lack of forethought and understanding as support for an argument that we should have done something different a quarter of a century ago.
Not that I think Carter gets off the hook for Iran, but the author is being ridiculous to say this wasn't predicted (I have witnesses to my personal predictions of it, for example--both the WTC target and the planes as suicide weapons--and didn't Clancy predict something similar?). At least, however, they are now realizing that the Super Bowl, pipelines, tunnels, and other sites are potential targets.