The voices on the tape are chilling &045;&045; and not just the one suspected to be Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammad Atta speaking from the cockpit of one of the doomed planes.

When one official was asked whether military planes should be scrambled to provide air defense, he said, &uot;Ahh … I don’t know.&uot;

It was just one example of poor communication and confusion that came to light Thursday during a public hearing held by the commission investigating the attacks.

While the lack of preparedness for such a terrorist attack will haunt us for years into the future, the value of these hearings and the commission’s report is not in assigning blame or for wallowing in guilt.

Nor should it be used as a political tool when the final report is issued in late July.

The commission’s work can help us determine what went wrong that morning &045;&045; not just when terrorists seized four airplanes to use as missiles but when our own officials were could not communicate well enough to coordinate a response.

Military and government officials have told the commission that they now have systems in place to communicate better if such a terrible event should take place again.

Those plans cannot change what happened that day, but the commission’s work and the lessons from Sept. 11 can help us in the future.