The largest terrorist attack in modern history occurred a quarter-century ago when Al Qaeda operatives hijacked several planes and then crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11 when they heard what happened. Without exaggeration, it changed the world, and it also “accelerated the end of American hegemony” as Valdai Club Research Director Fyodor Lukyanov compellingly argued. Here are five reflections on this somber anniversary:
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1. The US Lost The Opportunity For An Equal Partnership With Russia
Former President Bill Clinton had already by then rejected Putin’s informal request to join NATO, thus putting a damper on their ties, but the Russian leader was still the first one to call Bush Jr. on 9/11. He offered intelligence sharing, allowed US cargo planes to transit across Russian airspace from the Arctic to Afghanistan, and agreed to the deployment of US troops in Russia’s “sphere of influence” in Central Asia. That was the last opportunity for an equal partnership with Russia, but the US had other plans.
2. Terrorism Has Since Metastasized & Gone Mainstream Across The World
Long gone are the days when terrorism was associated with modern-day cavemen and something that only happened infrequently since it’s now metastasized and gone mainstream across the world. Some places are afflicted with it more than others, but it’s no longer something uncommon, and it even sometimes takes the form of attempts to create terrorist states. Many people have therefore become numb to the latest news about it and thus consider terrorism to be inextricable from modern times.
3. The “Global War On Terrorism” Geopolitically Reshaped Afro-Eurasia
The West Asian-North African tri-continental pivot space in Afro-Eurasia, which was widely referred to as the “Greater Middle East” after 9/11, was geopolitically reshaped by the US’ “Global War on Terrorism”. The worst terrorist attack in modern history was exploited by certain US figures to execute military campaigns against several states in this region. It also distracted the US from containing China, the intent of which Bush Jr. signaled prior to 9/11, thus buying time for it to grow and ultimately challenge the US.
4. Americans’ Crisis Of Confidence In Their Government Led To Trump’s Rise
More Americans than ever began to doubt what their government was telling them after 9/11 due to their belief that it allowed this terrorist attack to happen for the abovementioned reason and the Bush Administration’s lies about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq over the next 18 months. This crisis of confidence led to Trump’s rise after he masterfully took advantage of it to present himself as the anti-establishment candidate who’d “drain the swamp’ and restore integrity to the government if elected.
5. Conspiracy Theories & Anti-Semitism Are More Popular Than Ever
Some government conspiracies are real and Jews have some bad apples among them just like all groups do, but in the quarter-century since 9/11, conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism are more popular than ever. The canard that Israel was responsible for 9/11 has evolved to blaming Israel for pretty much anything that goes wrong across the world, from the Ukrainian Conflict to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and Jews as a whole are now routinely bashed on social media. Global IQ appears to have plunged.
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It’s impossible to know what the world would have been like had 9/11 never happened. Many Americans are nostalgic for the 1990s partly because of how radically everything changed since then. The same might go for those whose countries were destroyed as a result of the “Global War on Terrorism”. On the other hand, some people might cynically appreciate the decline of US hegemony over the past quarter-century, though that doesn’t mean that they celebrate 9/11 and dance on the graves of the dead.
