Today, September 11, marks another solemn anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack ever carried out on American soil, a day that forever changed the way this nation views its security, its unity and its resolve in the face of pure evil.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen radical Islamic terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners, turning ordinary instruments of American commerce and travel into weapons aimed at the heart of the nation. Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A third slammed into the Pentagon, the very symbol of American military strength, in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth, United Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew, understanding the fate that awaited them, rose up and fought back against their hijackers.
Nearly three thousand innocent Americans lost their lives that day. Office workers, first responders, flight crews, military personnel and ordinary citizens who had done nothing more than go to work or board a plane became victims of an ideology that despises everything America stands for: freedom, faith and self government.
Every year on this date, communities across the country pause to remember. Flags are lowered to half staff. Church bells ring at the exact moments the towers fell. Firehouses and police departments hold ceremonies honoring the 343 New York City firefighters and dozens of police officers who ran into burning buildings while everyone else was running out.
That sacrifice remains, a quarter century later, one of the most powerful examples of American courage and selflessness in our history. These were men and women who understood the danger, understood the odds and went anyway, because that is what it means to serve and protect your fellow citizens.
The passengers of Flight 93 deserve special recognition as well. Learning through phone calls to loved ones that their plane had been hijacked as part of a coordinated attack, a group of ordinary Americans made the extraordinary decision to storm the cockpit rather than allow their plane to be used as a weapon against the U.S. Capitol or the White House. Their actions almost certainly saved the lives of countless people in Washington, D.C., and their memory is honored today at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, America saw something that feels increasingly rare in today’s divided political climate: genuine, unified national resolve. Democrats and Republicans stood together on the steps of the Capitol and sang “God Bless America.” Churches, synagogues and mosques across the country filled with Americans seeking comfort and praying for the nation. Volunteers from every corner of the country traveled to New York and Washington to help however they could, whether that meant digging through rubble at Ground Zero or simply serving coffee to exhausted rescue workers.
That spirit of unity did not last forever in our politics, but the underlying gratitude Americans feel toward those who serve and sacrifice for this country has never faded. It shows up every year in the solemn ceremonies held at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, where the names of every victim are read aloud, one by one, by family members whose grief remains as real today as it was in 2001.
The attacks also launched a new era in American foreign and domestic policy, one defined by a renewed focus on protecting the homeland from radical Islamic terrorism. The Global War on Terror led to the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that had harbored Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and later the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Nearly a decade after the attacks, U.S. Navy SEALs finally delivered justice to the mastermind behind 9/11, killing bin Laden in a daring raid on his compound in Pakistan in May 2011.
At home, the attacks led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and sweeping reforms to how American intelligence agencies share information, changes designed to make sure that the kind of catastrophic failures that allowed the plot to go undetected would never happen again. Airport security was transformed overnight, and Americans accepted new inconveniences in daily life as the price of vigilance against future attacks.
Conservatives have long argued, and rightly so, that the lessons of 9/11 must never be forgotten or diluted by political correctness. The attacks were carried out by radical Islamic terrorists who explicitly stated their intent to destroy Western civilization and impose their extremist ideology by force. Acknowledging that plainly, without euphemism, is essential to honoring the victims and ensuring future generations understand exactly what happened and why.
In recent years, there has been legitimate concern among many Americans that the memory of 9/11 is fading, particularly among younger generations who were not alive when the towers fell. Polling has shown a decline in basic knowledge about the attacks among high school and college age Americans, a trend that should alarm anyone who understands how vital historical memory is to national security and civic strength.
That is why the continued work of memorial foundations, veterans groups and educators who make it their mission to teach the next generation about 9/11 matters so much. Programs that bring survivors and first responders into classrooms to share their firsthand accounts serve as a bulwark against historical amnesia, ensuring that “never forget” remains more than just a slogan printed on a bumper sticker.
This year’s remembrance also comes at a time when the terror threat facing America has evolved but has certainly not disappeared. Radical Islamic terrorism remains a persistent danger, and threats now come not only from organized groups abroad but from lone actors radicalized online, homegrown extremists and hostile state actors seeking to exploit America’s open society. Border security and vetting of those entering the country remain, as they always have since 2001, matters of the utmost national importance.
President Trump, along with other national leaders, is expected to mark the anniversary with public remarks honoring the victims and reaffirming America’s commitment to fighting terrorism wherever it emerges. Ceremonies are also being held at the Pentagon Memorial, honoring the 184 people who died there, many of them military personnel who had dedicated their lives to defending the very nation that was attacked that morning.
Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many of whom enlisted directly because of what they witnessed on September 11, also deserve recognition today. An entire generation of young Americans answered the call to service in the years following the attacks, serving multiple deployments in hostile environments far from home to ensure that terrorists could never again use a foreign safe haven to plan an attack on American soil.
For families who lost loved ones that day, September 11 will never simply be a date on the calendar. It is a day of raw grief that returns every year with the same intensity it carried a quarter century ago. The nation owes it to them, and to every first responder who rushed toward danger rather than away from it, to keep their memory alive with the same seriousness and reverence it deserves.
