The Enduring Tragedy of 9/11

The Islamism that spurred the hijackers to murder 3,000 innocent people has today been embraced by much of the American left as an expression of victimhood, anti-Capitalism, and hatred of the West.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article contained a typographical error that reversed the meaning of a key sentence. The article has been corrected and republished below.

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The US National September 11 Memorial (Wikimedia Commons)

Everyone in my parents’ generation remembers what they were doing when they heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, and everyone in my generation remembers what they were doing on 9/11.

I was working at a research institute in Jerusalem when my phone rang with an urgent message from Major White, in command of the Marine contingent at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. “A plane has crashed into the North Tower at the World Trade Center. We’re not sure yet if it’s an accident or a terrorist attack.” He called back twenty minutes later. “Another plane just hit the South Tower. It’s a terrorist attack.”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor awakened a sleeping giant. Al Qaeda’s attack on the United States ultimately put one to sleep.

At the cost of some 300,000 dollars and the suicides of nineteen terrorists, the September 11 attack was arguably one of the most successful military operations in history. The United States, then at the height of its post-war power, never recovered. Not since the War of 1812 and the burning of the White House by British forces had America’s heartland been so flagrantly violated and the symbols of its preeminence laid waste. The blow to the country’s sense of security, much less its self-confidence, was devastating. But the physical, financial, and psychological destruction wrought by the terrorists on 9/11 paled beside its long-term damage.

Those deleterious effects did not begin on 9/11, however. Al Qaeda struck a nation which, despite its extraordinary achievements, was already questioning its exceptionalism. Graduates of America’s most elite universities, having learned that their country was a force of evil in the world and scarcely worth defending, were poised to enter positions of corporate, government, and media power. In striking the Towers and the Pentagon, the planes drove the nails of self-doubt deeper into the American consciousness.

Further deepening that disbelief were Washington’s reactions to the attack. The invasion of Iraq justified by the threat of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction that were never found, combined with the quixotic attempt to transform the Afghani sandcastle into a coherent, stable nation-state, further eroded the people’s trust in their leaders. In the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, the Towers’ collapse heralded an implosion of government credibility.

There is a discernible line between 9/11 and 10/7. America’s evisceration of Iraq and the wholesale capitulation that was the 2015 nuclear deal fueled the rise of an imperial Iran and its jihadist proxies. The massacres of Israelis on October 7, 2023 could only have taken place with the financial backing and military training—if not the blessing—of Iran.

The elimination of terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden and Qassem Soleimani by Presidents Obama and Trump, respectively, did little to reverse the long-term trends unleashed by 9/11. The Iranian regime committed hundreds of acts of war against the United States, and yet the American people remain overwhelmingly opposed to Trump’s efforts to wage war in return. The public hypersensitivity to the material costs of war and the losses of U.S. servicepeople reflects the enduring trauma of 9/11 and America’s abortive response.

What, then, would America’s reaction be if—god forbid—it were to happen again? Would Progressives say “We had it coming to us”? Would the isolationists say “That’s what we get for sticking our noses in other peoples’ business”?

Though I was an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War—“It’ll move the Iran border 800 miles westward” I told the Congressional Foreign Affairs committee in 2003—I remain supportive of the projection of American power abroad. To what extent, I wonder, and for how long, could that power be projected today?

Those questioning the success of the 9/11 attacks need only to look at America’s current political landscape. It features pervasive voices that oppose U.S. military action under virtually any circumstance and largely dismisses Islamist violence against the United States as the natural response to “American Imperialism.” Tens of thousands of Americans, especially young people, have shared bin Laden’s hate letters to the United States. The Islamism that spurred the hijackers to murder 3,000 innocent people has today been embraced by much of the American left as an expression of victimhood, anti-Capitalism, and hatred of the West.

Perhaps the greater proof of Al Qaeda’s triumph is the election of a New York Mayor whose presence at the 9/11 memorial ceremony was unwanted by the bereaved families. This is a mayor whose singular response to 9/11 was to lament the discomfort felt by his hijab-wearing aunt—actually his cousin—riding subways in the weeks after. While expressing sorrow for those killed, the mayor has not once named, much less condemned, their killers.

Learning about the attack on Pearl Harbor, people of my parents’ generation deeply understood the sacrifices they would have to make and the need to answer the call to serve. Many Americans after 9/11 had similar feelings. In its aftermath, they united behind the nation’s defense, but not for long—and today are profoundly split. Now, on its twenty-fifth anniversary, we all must mourn those murdered on that horrific September day, but the most meaningful testament to their memory will be to reclaim the unity experienced in the attack’s immediate aftermath. There is no better way to honor the dead, together with the sacrifices of those who tried to save them, than to ensure that 9/11 never happens again.