My experience of 9/11 was a tiny part of the many tragedies that have followed that day. The aftermath lives with all of us, even for the third of Americans who were not yet born or were too young to have a direct memory of the event. The United States soon invaded Afghanistan. That made some sense since that country was harboring the terrorist group al-Qaeda that was responsible for the attacks. Why we didn’t declare victory and leave when Afghanistan expelled al-Qaeda is perplexing. Instead, we kept troops there for two decades. We also, however, launched a war against Iraq, which was a different kind of fiasco. Iraq was not responsible for 9/11. Instead, we ginned up false claims to justify this war of choice.
However, besides Afghanistan and Iraq, there were many other military actions in eighty countries in what was proclaimed the Global War on Terror. The costs were steep. American lives were lost in the Towers and beyond, but we seldom think of the other deaths. A recent estimate suggests that 900,000 people have been killed and uncounted refugees have been created as a direct result of our war on terrorism. And of course, there were many other consequences—PTSD, shattered families, educations lost, addictions, lung cancers, and much more.
We don’t discuss much the monetary costs although a recent report states that in the two decades after September 11, 2001, we spent more than $8 trillion to fight terrorism. “Patriots,” however, did not want to pay for it. They did not suggest that we increase our taxes to cover what was to make us freer and safer. Instead, we reduced taxes for certain segments of the population, and of course, deficits increased. We decided that for our security, our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, born and unborn, should pony up the money. When railing against our national deficits and debt, think about how successful the 9/11 terrorists were. When politicians and pundits claim we don’t have money for needed infrastructure, healthcare improvements, education, childcare, and much else, think again to 9/11. Terrorists died on that day, but their actions live on.
Besides the creation of deficits, however, our actions actually helped create terrorism. The roots of ISIS erupted out of our invasion of Iraq in 2003. The goal of that group, first formed in 2004, was to remove the Western, primarily American, occupation of Iraq and impose a Sunni Islamist regime. We may have killed terrorists, but we have also helped create them.
Several years after our Iraqi invasion but with years of occupation yet to go, I was part of a not-too-select group to go to Israel to study terrorism from the Jewish nation’s perspective. We met with retired Israeli intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts. They were all perplexed by our invasion. Iraq was not the major Mideast problem, they said; Iran was the region’s major state sponsor of terrorism. By damaging Iran’s major enemy, Iraq, we were only strengthening Iran. The response to September 11 that led to our Iraqi actions only helped state-sponsored terrorism, a price we and others continue to pay.
The aftermath of the September 2001 also affects us in quotidian ways that now seem normal. An immediate response to the attacks was increased “security” by all sorts of organizations. This continues. We require identification or special procedures to enter places that we once entered without fanfare before 9/11. For an ordinary business meeting in an ordinary office building recently, I had to stop at a front desk. One of the two men there verified I had an appointment, which meant that someone had to inform him of the meeting. He took and printed out my picture on one of those sticky badges. He called the office where I was going, and someone from upstairs had to come down to collect me since the building required a card to use the elevator. And after what was maybe a five-minute delay, I was in the meeting. I have never seen expense figures put on this and similar kinds of security, but the equipment, personnel, and time spent all impose costs. Perhaps that amount is small for any one transaction, but there must be at least hundreds of thousands, perhaps even tens of millions, of such encounters every day, at a total cost of…..???
All these actions that came in the wake of the Twin Towers may have been worth it if they have led to a safer and freer America. Perhaps some things have been done that achieve these goals, but we are not good at assessing our actions, even the ones we continue to do. Do you feel freer and safer? Does the world? The terrorists on the planes died. Bin Laden and many other terrorist leaders have been killed. But they continue to affect us every day.
