The second plane was the most shocking on September 11. Not just because its collision with the World Trade Center was caught on film, but also because it ruled out any innocent explanation. This was not an accident. For the first time in decades, the homeland was under attack. Much about American life would have to change.
Conspiracy theories about 9/11 still swirl around the gutters of the internet, but there's also an active debate about why these attacks occurred. Some people blame Israel because, in their view, the Muslim world would have no quarrel with the United States if it were not for the Jewish state. Others think the attack was a natural, and possibly even justified, response to U.S. imperialism and hubris. Neither claim is true. Al Qaeda attacked Washington and New York because the terrorists wanted to harm American interests in the Middle East and beyond. Our allies, however, are not a source of vulnerability, but of strength.
Al Qaeda came into being during a turbulent moment in the Middle East. Two broad schools of thought had emerged in the Middle East about how to regain a dominant role in world affairs. One camp argued that copying Western institutions would create Western levels of power. The other countered that imitating the early Islamic community would yield greater spiritual, moral, and ultimately political strength. Osama bin Laden created his terrorist group when these Salafists were on the ascent.
During the 20th century, many Middle Eastern countries adopted some Western institutions, such as elaborate constitutions that they routinely ignored. They more enthusiastically embraced some of the worst ideas emanating from the West, such as state-led economies and other dead-end Marxist concepts. By 1980, secular-leaning dictators ruled Arab civilizational centers like Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus. The Salafists had nothing to show in the Sunni world, although a Shia Islamic revolution had seized control of Iran.
A decade later, secularism seemed like a loser. Iraq's Saddam Hussein attacked Iran, endured a bloody multiyear stalemate, then invaded Kuwait and watched his Soviet-equipped army get blown to smithereens by a U.S.-led coalition. The mujahideen, by contrast, had driven the Soviets out of Afghanistan, albeit with substantial American support. After channeling funds and other assistance from the Gulf to some fighters during the Afghan war, bin Laden partnered with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who aimed to overthrow the Egyptian government but mostly slaughtered civilians. Zawahiri believed attacking the "far enemy," the United States, was necessary for overthrowing Arab governments.
Bin Laden's depraved mind held many kooky beliefs about Jewish power over Americans—as revealed in his 2002 "letter to America" that trended on TikTok in 2023—but he didn't seek to kill Americans because of Zionism. In his 1996 declaration of jihad against the United States, bin Laden wrote, "Clearly after Belief there is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of" the Arabian peninsula. He also referred to "the forthcoming Islamic State" that would supposedly control the area after the Americans were defeated.
Some appeasers thought removing U.S. troops from the region and cutting off Israel would cause bin Laden to focus his ire elsewhere and smooth over tensions with the allegedly aggrieved Arab street, but they were mistaken. When bin Laden and Zawahiri crowed about 9/11, Zawahiri complained about the loss of Spain back before Christopher Columbus sailed for the New World. These fanatics sought to conquer the Middle East and then the world. Americans had a longstanding interest in preventing any other country from dominating the Persian Gulf's oil resources, which put us on a collision course with the jihadists.
Al Qaeda had murdered Americans before 9/11, but that attack made defeating the group a national priority. The Clinton administration had balked at earlier opportunities to kill bin Laden, but after he murdered nearly 3,000 Americans, bin Laden had to flee for his life from U.S. forces and their Afghan partners. Over the ensuing 25 years, our country's military became ruthlessly efficient at finding and defeating terrorists around the world, as the Navy SEALs personally demonstrated to bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. There are still plenty of al Qaeda allies active, but none have carried out an attack nearly as harmful in the United States.
Allies have been critical for curbing this threat. NATO invoked the mutual defense treaty on September 12 and many members sent troops to Afghanistan. Israel provided intelligence and other support against a range of threats. Many regional partners have fought with extraordinary courage. Some of the most pugnacious American allies are the "hypocrites" bin Laden threatened in 1996.
Shortly after 9/11, bin Laden said, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse." He was right. He just didn't understand the sources of American strength.
