20 years after 9/11: this was the morning of terror 6:25
(CNN) - The
United States entered the battle on September 11, 2001, united in defense of its values and way of life.
Twenty years later, he is at war with himself, his democracy is threatened from within in a way that Osama bin Laden never managed.
Minute by minute: 20 years of September 11, 2001
At the time, the 9/11 attacks that occurred against a crisp blue sky, turned the clear morning into horror and demonstrated that the vast oceans could no longer protect America from terrorism from the outside world.
But for at least a few weeks, everyone - liberals, conservatives, regardless of race or creed - was one in mourning the nearly 3,000 dead and fearing more attacks.
Yet in hindsight, the attacks heralded the beginning of an era of political trauma and turbulence that doused a brief period in which a prosperous America had basked in a post-Cold War glow of peace, emerging as a lone superpower. .
Images of the coverage of September 11, 2001 0:57
The story gives events a clarity that they lacked in real time.
But he cannot register the pain, panic and disorientation of those terrible and painful days after 9/11 that prompted the decisions of political leaders.
In hindsight, it is now clear that despite the heroism of thousands of soldiers killed or maimed in the wars after 9/11, the excesses of America's political response caused as much, if not more, upheaval as the attacks themselves.
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Everything you need to know about the 19 terrorists who participated in September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001 does not explain everything.
But the war on terror took the United States in a political direction from which there was no turning back.
A scathing and successful war in Afghanistan plunged into a 20-year swamp that ended last month.
Another war in Iraq, fought under false pretenses, was his own initial version of a Big Lie.
A new state of government security designed to thwart subsequent attacks endures.
Confidence in Washington was thwarted by vast surveillance programs.
America's name was tainted by torture.
The judicial war on terror stretched the Constitution.
Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks in the US, this is how the threat from Afghanistan changed
President George W. Bush went from being a champion over the rubble at Ground Zero to a leader destroyed by his own war. His successor, Barack Obama, spent two terms fighting to bring the counterterrorism campaign within international law and morality, but the use of drones to carry out lethal attacks and eliminate terrorist targets also caused civilian casualties and was condemned by human rights defenders. .
Meanwhile, the thousands killed and wounded in foreign wars, the trillions of dollars spent building the nation, the anger at Washington's elites, and the prejudices against Islam generated a pool of resentment ripe for a demagogue.
And Donald Trump came along, promising to ban Muslims from entering the United States and boasting that he was smarter than all the generals who led years of grueling fighting.
OPINION |
I am a Muslim, I was a United States Marine and I served on September 11, 2001
The political wounds of the years after 9/11 were exposed once more in recent days, when the final chaotic retreat from Kabul closed the circle of history: the fundamentalist Taliban - who welcomed al Qaeda - are back again. rule Afghanistan.
Bin Laden - who sent suicide hijackers to direct fuel-loaded planes at icons of US political, economic and military power - believed the United States to be corrupt, weak and immoral.
But even he would be surprised to observe the bitter inner distancing that it helped spark.
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People tie blue ribbons in front of the last pillar of the Twin Towers left standing after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The image is from May 30, 2017. (Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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A detail of the “trident”, a steel column that was part of the support of the structure of the Twin Towers (Credit: STAN HONDA / AFP via Getty Images)
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This is how the helmet of firefighter Dan Potter was left, who survived the attack on September 11, 2001. His helmet is part of the Memorial Museum exhibition (Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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A pair of glasses recovered at Ground Zero.
The object is part of the Memorial Museum exhibit (Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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Objects that were found after the attack on the Pentagon of September 11, 2001. (Credit: STAN HONDA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Fragments of the plane from Flight 11 on display at the Memorial Museum.
(Credit: STAN HONDA / AFP via Getty Images)
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The ladder of a fire truck destroyed during rescues after the attack on the Twin Towers.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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The shirt of a firefighter who assisted in the rescues after the attack on the Twin Towers.
It is part of the exhibition of the Memorial Museum.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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Ground Zero Objects, includes a North Tower television antenna.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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The destroyed ladder of a fire truck that was in the rescue after the attack.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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Ground Zero artifacts.
This is an elevator motor for one of the buildings.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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A New York Fire Department ambulance.
(Credit: STAN HONDA / AFP via Getty Images)
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The helmet worn by firefighter Christian Waugh on September 11, 2001. (Credit: STAN HONDA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Various objects rescued from Ground Zero.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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The identity card of Glenn J. Winuk, who died after the attacks on the Twin Towers.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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A bike rack recovered from Ground Zero.
(Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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Kate Kuhl, curator of the New York State Museum, holds up a rescued firefighter's boot from the remains of the Twin Towers.
(Credit: MYCHELE DANIAU / AFP via Getty Images)
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Artifacts recovered after the attacks on the Twin Towers, in an exhibition at the New York State Museum.
(Credit: Will Waldron / Getty Images)
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The door of an ambulance recovered after the attacks on the Twin Towers, in an exhibition at the New York State Museum.
(Credit: Will Waldron / Getty Images)
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New York City Fire Department tank car that was destroyed in the bombing.
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Part of a phone that was recovered from the rubble after the attack.
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Another object recovered from the rubble after the attack.
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The steering wheel of a BMW recovered from the rubble after the attack.
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An evacuation plan poster recovered from the rubble after the attack.
(Credit: NYS Museum / Getty Images)
It was worth it?
A stroll down the lush grassy avenues among the graves of the post-9/11 United States war dead in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery - in view of the flight path of the hijacked plane that hit the Pentagon - raises a disturbing question: Was the war on terror worth the cost?
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Rows of white headstones - some with tokens like unit badges, photos, or even beer bottles - commemorate those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire of two decades of the American war have no monuments in Washington.
Robert Gates, a former Bush and Obama defense secretary, reflected Thursday on what had been won and lost.
"No one on September 12, 2001 would have dreamed that we would go 20 years without another major attack on America," Gates said at an Aspen Security Forum event.
"In the same way, I believe that the costs of these wars in lost lives, in lives changed forever by our military and many of our civilians who served and the cost to the country in terms of treasure and everything else has been enormous."
20 years after 9/11, the threat against the US relives 4:10
In the furor over Afghanistan's mismanaged exit, it was often forgotten that the first battles of the war on terror were successful, when the United States crushed al Qaeda, even though bin Laden escaped through the Tora Bora caves.
"Going to Afghanistan for its stated purposes at the time made it worthwhile," said former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, arguing at a Bipartisan Policy Center forum that three governments had downgraded al Qaeda's ability to attack America.
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While stressing that it could never "be worth it" to lose a son or daughter to war, Johnson said: "It was obviously costly, very costly. We ended up in a place where the Taliban are in charge again, but a lot has happened. in that 20-year period that I believe has made the homeland safer. "
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The "voluntary wars"
But what about the years after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon and the crash of a plane believed to be headed for the United States Capitol that was shot down by passengers in Pennsylvania?
With al Qaeda defeated, Americans continued to die in a futile effort to build a working Afghan state.
Were their deaths in vain in a war that ended in the defeat of the United States?
Was your service betrayed by political leaders?
The unanswered questions surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks
Tony Brooks - who served as an army ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq - insisted that despite the recent departure from the United States, the sacrifices of those who served set a generation of Afghans free, citing the case of any young women there. .
"He lived his life for 20 years. To say that it is all in vain is simply to dismiss the children and women of Afghanistan, in my opinion," Brooks said.
Brooks, who dropped out of college and joined the military after 9/11, also noted that the obstacles to the war on terror were not shared equally and said that media coverage did not fully reflect the reality of losses in the whole country.
"These wars were very unique in that they were 100% voluntary," Brooks noted, adding that the fighting took place in the "shadows" and received cover only when something went wrong.
He fled Afghanistan and returned as a soldier after 9/11 4:38
"To be honest, I don't think (the troops) have ever been honored. Because of the fully volunteer army, it was easy to fire him. If we forced people to leave, it would be a different story."
President Joe Biden understood the toll in America's small towns and cities, which undoubtedly influenced the politics of the past 20 years.
"How many thousands more American sons and daughters are you willing to risk?"
he asked when explaining his decision to leave Afghanistan.
"How long would you allow them to stay? Would you send your own son or daughter?"
Biden delivers provocative speech on withdrawal from Afghanistan: "I was not going to extend a war forever"
If the September 11 attacks were a lack of imagination on the part of the American authorities - who would have thought that a terrorist gang armed only with knives could humiliate a superpower? - Iraq was a case of excess of imagination, since the Political leaders, shocked by the massive casualties of September 11, worried about what a nuclear-armed tyrant might do.
But the invasion of the Bush administration was also an example of the arrogance of the United States, as it sought new targets after al Qaeda.
The inability to find weapons of mass destruction, the miscalculation that American troops would be greeted as liberators rather than targets for insurgents, and the malfunctioning of Iran - a state the United States left behind - dealt a devastating blow to the trust in the government and the credibility of the mainstream media, which were not skeptical enough about the war.
In addition, the power vacuum left after the overthrow, capture and execution of the dictator Saddam Hussein generated a terrorist group more ruthless than al Qaeda: ISIS.
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All of these were factors that increased the mistrust that Trump later exploited.
With Trump, would the same thing have happened in Afghanistan?
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How the 9/11 Wars Shaped the National Mood
Without the Iraq disaster, the United States may not have had its first black president.
When he was still an Illinois state legislator, Obama said he was not a pacifist but was opposed to "silly wars."
The message resounded in 2008, and his creed of hope offered relief from the Bush years, when the post-9/11 wars went awry.
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And had Obama not been in the Oval Office, Trump would have run out of fuel for a provocative campaign based on the racist claim that the 44th president was not born in the United States. But in 2016, Trump also touched a national mood, channeling supporters who believed that the political, economic, military and media establishments ignored a large part of a suffering country.
Trump ran as a classic strongman, exploiting the weariness of the 9/11 wars, looted rural economies, and a sense that the world was taking advantage of America.
His call for a "complete and complete shutdown" of Muslim immigration was based on the suspicion of foreigners who stayed after 9/11 and reflected his demonization of Mexican immigrants.
His claim that he was spied on by the Obama administration would have found less traction had it not been for the revelations about government surveillance by Edward Snowden.
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Our Muslim allies must step up to protect women in Afghanistan
Where Obama outlawed torture, Trump defended it.
After Obama built bridges with the Muslim world, his successor complained that the United States did not steal oil in Iraq.
"You have to fight fire with fire," Trump said, backing the drowning.
"We have to be strong. We have to fight cruelly. And violently, because we are dealing with violent people."
In retrospect, Trump's rhetoric foreshadowed his introduction of violence into the political debate, culminating in his inciting the crowds that invaded the United States Capitol inspired by his lies about voter fraud.
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Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said Trump fused elements of the new security state, such as a tough Department of Homeland Security and the torture of terrorism suspects, into his own brand.
ANALYSIS |
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"It is difficult to draw a direct line between the 9/11 reaction and Trump, but he weaponized the illiberal policies and attitudes that flourished in those years," Ben-Ghiat said.
"He takes all those seeds that were scattered in those years and puts them in an authoritarian-style policy package."
"It was about us"
Twenty years later, the emotional power of 9/11 has diminished, though not for the bereaved.
And the little moments can bring back memories of that day of infamy that returns quickly, like the flash of a plane flying over the skyscrapers of the city or a clock that shows 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the tower. north of the World Trade Center.
20 years after 9/11: this was the morning of terror 6:25
A generation of Americans has grown up in the world that created 9/11.
The babies born weeks after the attacks are now college sophomores.
Some of the first Americans to fight have now sent their own children to foreign battlefields.
Bush once warned of a multigenerational fight against terrorism.
But climate change and the rise of China are now seen as bigger threats.
And the most acute danger from terrorists is now homegrown.
Al Qaeda may not have hit the Capitol, but the building was attacked by extremists who confirmed the government's warnings that white supremacism is now the country's top terror threat.
After September 11, the United States came together to defend itself.
He did not do the same when he faced a president who mounted an assault on democracy.
ANALYSIS |
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Divisions also split the country into another national crisis: the coronavirus pandemic, which kills more people every other day than those who died on September 11, 2001. If a new September 11 occurs, it is hard to believe that national unity and politics would be repeated.
Beyond politics, and as he reflects on the twentieth anniversary of September 11, Brooks - who now practices chiropractic medicine and is the author of a book "Leave No Man Behind" on his wartime service - laments the loss of national union.
"That was the most unifying event of my life, and since then I felt that every major event that happens in the world just divides us even more," he said.
"It's not the same world, where the mission was bigger than oneself. It was about us, not me. I think now it's about me."
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