By John J. Metzler
We all remember where we were on Sept. 11, 2001. We all remember with sheer disbelief watching the unfolding horror and the realization that "it could happen here." We all remember and vowed never to forget the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on America, and, just as importantly, ensure that they never happen again.
As I wrote on that fateful day, "On a picture perfect clear September morning, the Grim Reaper visited New York." The azure blue of that sunny day was shattered by hijacked airliners being flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and into a side of the Pentagon.
I vividly recall seeing the Twin Towers burning from a few miles away, standing like two giant smokestacks against the panoramic sky in lower Manhattan. My memories are as surreal as they are painfully poignant. As I penned on that day, this unprovoked attack "became this generation's Pearl Harbor."
The attackers came from a violent and hateful ideology, not a formal state as was Imperial Japan when the latter's military attacked the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii. The surprise Dec. 7 assault came from a formal state with a fixed address: Tokyo.
In the case of the al-Qaeda attacks on America, the terrorists represented an Islamic fundamentalist ideology operating from the vastness of Afghanistan's Islamic Emirate. The subsequent military counter-strike on Afghanistan, the toppling of the Taliban regime and the hunting down of Bin Laden's network soon followed.
Nowadays, each year the somber commemorations in New York recall, revere and respect the fallen. Each year the commemorations try to evoke not only the pain and fury of that fateful September day, but the sacrifice and the heroism too. Thus, the annual respect for the fallen is a kind of celebration of life rather than a wake for the dead.
This year is the 20th anniversary year of the incident. The political optics of Sept. 11 commemorations always attempt to recreate that fleeting moment when the United States was united as one and steadfast in the mission to track down the terrorists.
The remembrances in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania are but a somber reminder of America being jolted into a reality long present in so many parts of the world facing terrorist violence.
Indeed, the unprecedented unity which America experienced following the attacks is long gone and replaced by bitter divisions, revisionist recriminations and even airbrushing of the 9/11 story.
Nearly 3,000 civilians were murdered that fateful day. Some 343 members of the New York City Fire Department died in a heroic but fateful rescue attempt. Twenty three New York Police Department and 37 Port Authority police were killed. And many thousands more people both among first responders and civilians are still affected by post-9/11 illnesses.
The losses, the sacrifice and the memories continue.
They form what I call, the "Legion of the Silent," those who fell on Sept. 11 and still remain in our memories and our prayers. But they are gone forever. Their kids are grown up and in college, indeed many serve in the military or are among first responders themselves. Some are now part of that thin blue and red line, the Police and the Fire Departments, who protect us 24/7, to use the phrase.
But there is another stunning reality facing us this Sept. 11. We are living through the immediate aftermath of the fall of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban regime we helped topple 20 years ago. History indeed has a strange, if not bitter way, of repeating itself.
The safe havens al-Qaeda once had in Afghanistan could soon be back. Afghanistan is now once again run by the Taliban fundamentalists. American honor has been stained and bloodied with the fall of Kabul. Were the lives of 2,400 U.S. troops over 20 years, and 13 more just two weeks ago, lost in vain? Were more than 20,000 injuries in Afghanistan so quickly forgotten?
History seems to be scolding us for the lessons we never seem to learn. The precipitous U.S. pullout from the strategic Bagram Airbase, set up by former President Trump and carried out by current President Biden, tipped the scales and psychologically devastated the wavering Afghan military. Defeat was in the air. Then, valuable munitions and military material, 27 Humvees to 73 aircraft, were left to fall into enemy hands.
Now that the war in Afghanistan has ended with a Taliban victory, the U.S. faces the possibility of an energized jihadi international movement planning its next move.
John J. Metzler (jjmcolumn@earthlink.net) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism ― The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."
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As I wrote on that fateful day, "On a picture perfect clear September morning, the Grim Reaper visited New York." The azure blue of that sunny day was shattered by hijacked airliners being flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and into a side of the Pentagon.
I vividly recall seeing the Twin Towers burning from a few miles away, standing like two giant smokestacks against the panoramic sky in lower Manhattan. My memories are as surreal as they are painfully poignant. As I penned on that day, this unprovoked attack "became this generation's Pearl Harbor."
The attackers came from a violent and hateful ideology, not a formal state as was Imperial Japan when the latter's military attacked the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii. The surprise Dec. 7 assault came from a formal state with a fixed address: Tokyo.
In the case of the al-Qaeda attacks on America, the terrorists represented an Islamic fundamentalist ideology operating from the vastness of Afghanistan's Islamic Emirate. The subsequent military counter-strike on Afghanistan, the toppling of the Taliban regime and the hunting down of Bin Laden's network soon followed.
Nowadays, each year the somber commemorations in New York recall, revere and respect the fallen. Each year the commemorations try to evoke not only the pain and fury of that fateful September day, but the sacrifice and the heroism too. Thus, the annual respect for the fallen is a kind of celebration of life rather than a wake for the dead.
This year is the 20th anniversary year of the incident. The political optics of Sept. 11 commemorations always attempt to recreate that fleeting moment when the United States was united as one and steadfast in the mission to track down the terrorists.
The remembrances in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania are but a somber reminder of America being jolted into a reality long present in so many parts of the world facing terrorist violence.
Indeed, the unprecedented unity which America experienced following the attacks is long gone and replaced by bitter divisions, revisionist recriminations and even airbrushing of the 9/11 story.
Nearly 3,000 civilians were murdered that fateful day. Some 343 members of the New York City Fire Department died in a heroic but fateful rescue attempt. Twenty three New York Police Department and 37 Port Authority police were killed. And many thousands more people both among first responders and civilians are still affected by post-9/11 illnesses.
The losses, the sacrifice and the memories continue.
They form what I call, the "Legion of the Silent," those who fell on Sept. 11 and still remain in our memories and our prayers. But they are gone forever. Their kids are grown up and in college, indeed many serve in the military or are among first responders themselves. Some are now part of that thin blue and red line, the Police and the Fire Departments, who protect us 24/7, to use the phrase.
But there is another stunning reality facing us this Sept. 11. We are living through the immediate aftermath of the fall of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban regime we helped topple 20 years ago. History indeed has a strange, if not bitter way, of repeating itself.
The safe havens al-Qaeda once had in Afghanistan could soon be back. Afghanistan is now once again run by the Taliban fundamentalists. American honor has been stained and bloodied with the fall of Kabul. Were the lives of 2,400 U.S. troops over 20 years, and 13 more just two weeks ago, lost in vain? Were more than 20,000 injuries in Afghanistan so quickly forgotten?
History seems to be scolding us for the lessons we never seem to learn. The precipitous U.S. pullout from the strategic Bagram Airbase, set up by former President Trump and carried out by current President Biden, tipped the scales and psychologically devastated the wavering Afghan military. Defeat was in the air. Then, valuable munitions and military material, 27 Humvees to 73 aircraft, were left to fall into enemy hands.
Now that the war in Afghanistan has ended with a Taliban victory, the U.S. faces the possibility of an energized jihadi international movement planning its next move.
John J. Metzler (jjmcolumn@earthlink.net) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism ― The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."
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