Weekly Wisdom | 25 Years Later
Reflections on September 11th
Today marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, which claimed 2,958 innocent lives. Many documentaries and books have analyzed that infamous day and its aftermath, and new ones are still being created, such as Netflix’s Turning Point: Generation 9/11. But does the post-9/11 world, 25 years later, still closely resemble the one of, say, 2011? Just how relevant is September 11th, 2001 in 2026?
September 11th still shapes the domestic and geopolitical landscape to this day:
Twenty-five years later, few would argue that radical Islamic terrorists remain our chief threat. And while the extremist Iranian regime presents a challenge to Middle East stability, the United States’s primary security priority is China. And Russia, as we’ve seen, is more militarily and economically resilient than most analysts predicted. Foreign policy experts would say that the United States is currently competing with other “Great Powers” for control over spheres of influence. Islamic terrorist cells are no longer the biggest concern; instead, nuclear-armed Russia and China are.
Over the past two decades, the United States has been successful in crippling many of the terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East. Osama bin Laden is dead, ISIS is an afterthought, Afghanistan and Iraq are in better shape than before September 11th, and the Gulf nations are strong allies of the United States. Additionally, an emboldened Israel has kept many of the worst terrorist elements from rebuilding their strength.
While the American people supported our invasion of Afghanistan, the subsequent war with Iraq soured the nation’s mood in the years after. Simply put, today’s voters remain skeptical of most forms of interventionism as a result of wars that were launched after September 11th.
After September 11th, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, and intrusive laws such as the Patriot Act were passed to increase the government’s ability to surveil. The expansion of the security state grew substantially in the years after September 11th, and like the public’s distaste for foreign interventionism, libertarians and many in MAGA still remain strongly opposed to excessive government intrusion into our lives in the name of security. For example, think of the fierce debate taking place today regarding Flock cameras in our communities.
As the Democratic Party increasingly elects far-left DSA candidates, it shouldn’t be surprising that radicals like Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City and Michigan Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, have made distasteful statements about the U.S. government surrounding 9/11. It’s perhaps not too surprising that anti-Semitic politicians on the left felt comfortable criticizing America after the greatest terrorist attack in our history.
The 25th anniversary of 9/11 shows a world that was changed and shaped by its events. The debates surrounding terrorism, interventionism, and government overreach are as fervent today as they were in the aftermath of the attacks. But in some important ways, the world is also moving past some of its legacy, as America refocuses on Asia and seeks to fortify the Western Hemisphere against major powers. Nonetheless, the heroes and victims of 9/11 will continue to be remembered and cherished.
