Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America

Today is the twenty-fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America by the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda, which killed nearly 3,00 people. The hijacking of civilian airliners and the crashing of them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a field in Pennsylvania (after the passengers attempted to overtake the hijackers) were the deadliest terrorist attacks in world history. The attacks sparked the United States-led War on Terrorism, in which the Taliban militia that was the de facto ruler of most of Aghanistan was overthrown by 2021 for harboring al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda’s leadership has been decimated, but it remains a threat, as does its offshoot, the Islamic State, even though the latter was deprived of its territory and like its parent organization, its leader was killed. The two Islamist terror organizations have affiliates around the Islamic world. The U.S., which led an international coalition that overthrew the Taliban, is still engaged in military missions, although usually not combat missions, against these and other terrorists in several predominately Muslim States. The U.S. also shares intelligence with allies and leads efforts against the financing of terrorism. The sucess of these efforts and those of the military, intelligence and security agencies, policymakers and even private citizens have prevented any other attack on such a scale. But a major concern is the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021, after the U.S. withdrawal of the 2,500 American troops engaged in a non-combat mission since 2014, after a partial U.S. withdrawal and an end of its combat mission, in support of the Afghan government that was an ally of the U.S. There had been no American troop losses since February 2020. The deal that the Trump Administration negotiated with the Taliban terrorist sponsors legitimized them, undermined the Afghan government that was excluded from the negotiations and reduced Agfhan military morale. Trump’s deal also included the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners of war and hamstrung the American-led coalition from engaging the Taliban ahead of the promised withdrawal of American forces by August 2021. The Taliban, who are intertwined with Islamist terrorists, promised only not to harbor al-Qaeda again. The head of al-Qaeda took up residence in the Afghan capital of Kabul, however, until the U.S. killed him in a raid under Trump’s successor. The lack of an American presence on the ground in Afghanistan inhibits the ability to gain intelligence against terrorists and to strike al-Qaeda targets along the Afghan-Pakistan border. One consolation was the rescue of many Afghans who had worked for the U.S. or its international or Afghan allies, but the first Trump Administration put up obstacles to refugees trying to flee Afghanistan and the second has ended protections for Afghans in America, leaving them vulnerable to deportation and thus persecution and death at the hands of the Taliban, thereby undermining U.S. security by undermining confidence in the U.S. because of its failure under Trump to protect those who work with us from risk. The second Trump Administration has engaged in combat with other terrorists and talks toughly against other terrorists or overly broadly labels others “terrorists” to invoke measures against them, after Donald Trump had focused on ending (i.e. losing) the War on Terrorism, including the Afghan campaign because of his isolationist views. The threat from al-Qaeda and its affiliates has hardly been mentioned by the Administration, as it had hardly arisen in the 2024 presidential election campaign. Moreover, the Trump deal with the Taliban and the subsequent withdrawal under his liberal Democratic sucessor encourages terrorists to continue to fight the U.S. and ocassionally inflict casualties, as Islamist terrorists believe the American people will tire of what they regard as lengthy wars, or even non-combat support missions, especially if there is not a clear goal of victory, such as destroying the Taliban, which should have been the goal. The Trump deal with the Taliban, based on a lack of American patience, thus rewards the patience of the Islamist terrorists who regard even twenty years as only a brief warin the long course of history, and their sporadic attacks for intimidating Americans to give into their demands of withdrawal so they could sieze power. Greater confidence, patience and willingness to sacrifice are necessary to prevent more deaths and injuries from terrorists. To win the war against Islamist terrorism, instead of only a strategy of defensive vigilance and responding ad hoc to threats from terrorists, a more comprehensive strategy of defeating the terrorists must be adopted. Americans were hit in the bloodiest way in their history 24 years ago, but the day is not only a sad commemoration of a massacre, but the beginning of American-led resistance to global terrorist threats. To prevent another attack on the scale of September 11, or many smaller-scale attacks on Americans and others around the world, the terrorist enemy must be defeated and the threat eliminiated.