It's time for adulting
Can you believe it's been 21 years since 9/11?
Since I generally keep my Substack on a Wednesday-Saturday schedule, putting an occasional more faith-based item in on Sunday, I’m going to do my annual 9/11 post a day early. (I actually had a post almost ready to go for today before I remembered tomorrow was 9/11, but it can wait until Wednesday.)
If you can’t guess, the title refers to the fact it’s now been 21 years since 9/11. A baby fated to be born that day will now be able to legally buy a handgun and alcohol - hopefully not on the same trip. It’s the last of the three milestone ages in the process of maturing in our modern culture, as 16 is associated with getting a driver’s license and 18 is the age of majority. It also means that everyone with a reasonable memory of the day is at least pushing thirty, and millions who experienced it at the age I am now are no longer with us.
Back in 2007 I wrote a long piece for monoblogue describing my personal story of 9/11, then came back three years later with another rehashing of the tale with some additional material, including the line that made me chuckle:
Just because we have ceased operations in Iraq and are getting ready to pull out of Afghanistan next year doesn’t mean the threat from Islamic terrorism has ceased – in fact, they may see this manuever as a sign of weakness.
It was funny in a bitter sort of way because it took us another decade to pull out of Afghanistan, and in essence that time was wasted - or worse, thanks to the chaotic withdrawal Joe Biden imposed because he wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by saying he’d gotten out of that hellhole, regardless of whether they were ready or not and had complied with the conditions negotiated earlier or not. We got out all right, but left a lot in there that should have gone with the troops, like military equipment and people who needed to be away from the Taliban.
Looking at another aspect, people have compared the events of 9/11 to those of Pearl Harbor Day in 1941. (The latter was not live breaking news on TV, though. A lot of people didn’t know about the attack for hours since it occurred on a Sunday afternoon, our time.) Yet by the time 1962 rolled around, we were friends enough with the Japanese that we had helped them rebuild their nation and were at the very dawn of the second Japanese invasion - the one involving Toyota, Honda, Datsun, et. al. Basically the only vestiges we had from fighting a world war at that point were the GI bill and backup withholding. (Yes, more government - even for a noble cause - and a way for them to pay themselves first.)
In 2022 our shadowy fight against radical Islam still goes on as we attempt to prevent another 9/11. But as time goes on in this battle there’s a saying that comes to my mind, even though it had really nothing to do with terrorism: Rahm Emanuel’s axiom, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (Ironically enough, Emanuel is now our ambassador to Japan.)
Just as happened after World War 2 with the aforementioned items, those who crave power seldom let a crisis go to waste, and in this case they promised more security in return for a lease on our liberty that never seems to expire. (Nor do they cancel it like they would a student loan.) 9/11 turned out to be a great twofer for them, serving as the excuse for expanding the surveillance state as well as Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex.”
In that case, it’s notable that, since World War 2, we haven’t really had a significant military drawdown on the scale that we had between the World Wars. We basically went pretty quickly from World War 2 to the Korean War, which soon morphed into Vietnam. After Vietnam we let the military slide until Reagan built it up with his “peace through strength” mantra, which worked to break the threat of the Soviet Union. With the military-industrial complex we have, that “peace dividend” couldn’t stand for more than a few years until we were back at it in the Middle East. It’s like we have always been at war with Eastasia until we get to warring with Eurasia.
Even with all that military blood and treasure, in truth we are no more secure from what the average American would consider a terrorist attack then we were before we were practically strip-searched at airports - granted, my memory of this is fuzzy since I haven’t taken an air trip since 2002 - because those who are the enemies of liberty from abroad aren’t always going to use the (admittedly brilliant) tactic of using a jet fuel-laden passenger jet as a mobile kamikaze missile. Terror can be spread in multiple ways, and doesn’t even have to pass a surveillance checkpoint like the 9/11 hijackers did: remember serial snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad? People in the D.C. area were paralyzed with fear about going outside and being in an exposed area for weeks. And this all happened in the immediate wake of 9/11, when our guard should have been at its highest.
Perhaps the most egregious change since 9/11 has been in the expanding list of who is considered a terrorist, because the long-standing definition is being flipped on its head. Case in point: in the last couple years our government has decided to look the other way as people with bad intentions (perhaps a latter-day Malvo and Muhammad) filter in across our porous southern border. Ask yourself: does someone looking to advance economically need a ghillie suit?
On the other hand, we have people who are considered domestic terrorists for the “Capital offense” of trespassing still languishing in jail 20 months later awaiting trial because an in-person petition for a redress of grievances had a few bad apples and various unwilling dupes. It’s a symptom of a government that was all for questioning authority a couple short years ago but is showing signs of not brooking dissent among its subjects now.
The real shame is that we may have had ourselves placed in the same leaky boat we’re now in eventually anyway. All the 3,000 people who died that day as a result of 9/11 terrorism did was accelerate the process.
In looking back over 21 years, I’ve come to believe these victims, as well as those who died later on as a result of injuries from the attack such as inhaling the asbestos and other chemicals in the dust and smoke, were seemingly martyred not for the cause of liberty, but as pawns for the expansion of what was rapidly devolving into an all-powerful federal government. (And you wonder why there are 9/11 conspiracy theorists who believe it was an inside job. I don’t reside in their camp, but I can understand their argument.) This isn’t something I would have said a decade ago, but as things progress in our rapidly changing republic, 9/11 looks more and more like just a convenient milestone in that path.
We called those police officers and firemen who oftentimes gave their lives to save others on 9/11 heroes, and they were. But in the cause of liberty there are going to be heroes who call BS on what the government is doing now who will make their own sacrifices. Never forget them, either.