9/11 and the War on Terror: What We Can Learn From 22 Years

Jakarta, Indonesia - Exactly this day 22 years ago, the United States suffered the most terrible and tragic attack that it has faced on American soil. Unlike Pearl Harbour, or even Maine, which targeted military bases, the World Trade Center Attack killed thousands of civilians, and the effects on the American psyche are still felt to this day.

Waking up 22 years ago, most American New Yorkers expected a day of work and productivity, passing through the twin towers that has become a mainstay of American culture for generations. What they did not expect was a plane crashing and causing the twin towers to collapse. After the initial shock reaction, Americans - Ignoring other differences, were united in a desire for justice and a desire to punish those responsible for the attacks.

Certainly, this desire was justifiable. Any attack against innocent people should have a swift response, but looking back on the events occurring after the attack, it is clear that mistakes were made, and these mistakes could serve as lessons for every country going forward.

The United States was swift to act after the attacks, hunting members of Al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the attack, all the way to Afghanistan. At the time, the United States believed that the Taliban was giving refuge to Osama bin Laden - the leader of the aforementioned terrorist group. Soon, the United States launched a campaign throughout the entire world, primarily in the Middle East and Africa, to end terrorism as we know it. This campaign would then go down in history as “The War on Terror.”

According to the United States, the Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan refused to cooperate in the hunt for Bin Laden, causing the United States to enact military action on Afghanistan and temporarily overthrowing the Taliban, establishing a Republican government. As we now know, this government would not last, and decades after the Taliban’s overthrow it would return to Kabul and raise the Black Standard over the country of Afghanistan again.

Besides Afghanistan, the United States also launched an intervention in Iraq - partially due to a theory that Saddam Hussein’s government had provided Al Qaeda with training on how to craft bombs and biological weapons. With the momentum of a public seeking justice, the United States Congress soon passed a bill in 2002 called the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution,” leading a multinational coalition primarily headed by the United States and British Armed Forces.

In the end, Saddam Hussein was deposed and hanged, while a Republic was established in Iraq. However, new evidence would emerge disproving Saddam Hussein’s connection with Al Qaeda. The United States Military stayed in Iraq until 2011, when its forces completely withdrew and left the Iraqi Government to its own devices.

In 2011, Bin Laden was also found in a compound in Pakistan and killed, finally bringing justice for the man who murdered thousands of lives for a wicked and perverse ideology.

However, in the pursuit of finding Al Qaeda, American policymakers failed to consider the geopolitical implications of their interventions, and worse still failed to determine which countries truly backed Al Qaeda and which were genuinely confused by accusations of support for the terrorist group.

After the United States ended its involvement and pulled military force out of Iraq, sectarian tensions sparked conflict in the country, putting the new Republic in jeopardy. Furthermore, a reaction to the collapse of Middle Eastern dictatorships saw popular demonstrations occur in countries around the Middle East now known as the Arab Spring in the 2010s.

As the nation of Syria began descending into civil war, the United States saw first hand the unintended consequences of intervention. Some parts of the pro-democracy rebellions were hijacked by Radical Islamist elements, and the infamous “Islamic” State (IS) was established in Syria.

As if the world returned to a time where Al Qaeda had prominence, IS oversaw a campaign of terror across Syria, using resentful Sunni populations in Iraq to spread their borders to two countries, causing a new wave of terrorism and death worldwide.

Eventually, IS was destroyed by a coalition, and the Middle Eastern nations now seem to be on a course for relative stability - but the damage has been done. A vicious cycle occurred where careless interventions as repercussions for terrorist attacks result in more resentment, causing the development of new terrorist organizations.

As IS is defeated, the world must avoid a return to this vicious cycle. A careful consideration of geopolitical dynamics and the potential for conflict in certain regions need to be heavily considered before jumping head first into intervention in the future, and collaboration with regional partners should be done to avoid the unintended consequences.

The world must stand against terrorism - but it is essential that intervention in foreign countries is done with the support of legitimate governments. Careful consideration of the facts should also be put into making such big decisions, as it is clear failure to do this has resulted in the Middle East’s very famous instability. A decision to invade one country could lead to a chain of events being set off that could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

We need to end the vicious cycle. We need to reject extremism in our daily life and live in peace, and governments in their part need to take into careful consideration the prudence of using military force in certain scenarios.

God Willing, an attack as terrible as the one which occurred two decades ago shall not happen again.