Editorial: 9/11 at 25—Memories of a macabre event

The war on terror may have weakened terrorist networks, but it has failed to eliminate the threat of terrorism

The world woke up to a new, brutal reality on September 11, 2001, when America came under the worst terrorist attack in history, a terrible event that reshaped the global security architecture. Till then, the United States had been basking in the glory of being the sole superpower in the post-Cold War era. 9/11 inflicted a rude shock, raising terrorism from what was barely background noise to an existential dread. The attacks, spearheaded by al- Qaeda, completely rewrote the public understanding of terrorism and reset the national security assessments. Airports became fortresses and intelligence agencies gained sweeping powers. Nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized control of four airliners, slamming two of the planes into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania. The world had to pay a heavy price for the war on terror that followed. The disastrous military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq only meant more sacrifices and more grief. A quarter of a century later, the balance sheet is sobering: the war on terror may have weakened terror networks but has not eliminated the threat of terrorism. Ironically, America’s ‘forever wars’ in foreign lands have only ended up destabilising the entire region, feeding the very extremism they sought to end.

The US invaded Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida and topple its Taliban protectors, a war that would drag on for a record 20 years, only for the Taliban to return to power. The war in Iraq was totally unjustified as it was launched on the false premise that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The global war on terror expanded into a sprawling enterprise of military intervention, intelligence operations, detention, and interrogation. More than 7,000 soldiers were killed and over 53,000 wounded in the military campaigns. It drained resources that could have been put to better use. Looking back, the key lesson for the world is that military force can weaken extremism, but only justice and a more equitable world order can address its deeper roots. Iraq’s collapse gave birth to ISIS. Afghanistan’s 20-year war ended with the Taliban back in power. The clearest lesson is that force alone cannot defeat an ideology. Donald Trump rode to power partly by criticising the nation’s post-September 11 response more harshly than any other prominent politician — only to repeat some of the mistakes himself, including through a pointless, prolonged war in Iran. He is compounding the errors of his predecessors with his own reckless foreign policy. Since 9/11, the world of intelligence and counter-terrorism has changed almost beyond recognition. With the advent of AI and quantum computing, it is only going to continue changing, and in some areas, at exponential speed.

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