Twentieth Anniversary of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks by al-Qaeda Islamists

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by the al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists that killed nearly 3,000 people. As always, I post in memory of those who died and in appreciation of those who have participated in many ways in the War on Terrorism, starting from that day, which have been successful in preventing another September 11-scale attack. There have been terrorist attacks around the world that each have killed hundreds of people and there have been attacks against Americans or on American soil by Islamists. Even adding up all the other terrorist or other attacks by Islamists on American soil over the last two decades does not equal the loss from September 11 and the same can be said of other attacks that are commonly mislabeled as “terrorism,” but were targeted at government or officials or other political targets, instead of against innocent civilians in order to intimidate them to pressure their government to give into the demands of the terrorists, or attacks based on hatred that are more properly labeled “genocide.” Major policy changes, such as sharing intelligence among domestic agencies and with foreign governments, expanding law enforcement tools used for other crimes to terrorism, and tighter domestic and international financial controls have been critical counterterrorism tools. But the military role has been essential, particularly overthrowing by the United States and its allies of the Taliban de facto regime of Afghanistan that had been willfully harboring al-Qaeda so the terrorists could train and plot freely, as well as targeting al-Qaeda for destruction, which did degrade them to a degree. Denying safe havens to terrorism is imperative. Keeping the Taliban from returning to power by aiding our allied Afghan government kept America and the world safe from September 11-scale attacks by al-Qaeda, although the Islamist terrorists and their offshoot, the Islamic State, like other Islamist or other terrorists and militants, continue to conduct smaller-scale attacks and remain a threat to global security. Islamists believe in advancing Islam through any means necessary, including violence. Conquering and holding territory is seen as a sign of divine favor for their cause. Therefore, the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan has been particularly disturbing, as I have been posting, despite a U.S. threat to continue to attack terrorist targets in Afghanistan from afar without apparently adequate intelligence on the ground and while the Biden Administration is letting the Taliban, which remains intertwined with al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists and which has formed a provisional government full of terrorists, destroy our Afghan allies whom we had relied upon to help overthrow the Taliban by 2002. Coupled with other withdrawals and planned draw-downs of troops, it appears that the isolationist policy of “ending wars” in terms of no longer having troops on the ground, even if not engaged in a combat role, while threats remain will weaken U.S. and allied ability to protect against terrorism. It is necessary to reassess American policy immediately and implement a more robust defense against Islamist terrorism to prevent an increase of terrorist and other attacks on Americans and U.S. interests around the world and on allies.