September 11, 2001, was a catastrophic day in the life of our nation—our generation's Fort Sumter or Pearl Harbor. We were suddenly and deliberately attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. Images from that infamous day stung our national consciousness—the fireballs as one plane, then a second, crashed into the Twin Towers; the panic and chaos on the streets as people fled in terror; the grim-faced firefighters going up those World Trade Center stairs; desperate people jumping to their deaths to avoid burning alive in those infernos.
In the immediate aftermath, Americans were properly filled with righteous anger and united in resolve to answer the attack. National honor demanded it; justice demanded it; the cause of humane civilization demanded it—the perpetrators of such barbarism had to be destroyed.
We set our face like flint for Afghanistan to kill Osama bin Laden and destroy al-Qaeda and its Taliban sponsors. It was a "necessary" and "good" war, and we were "all in." The young men and women of our armed forces led the way—the proud and lethal instruments of our united national resolve, worthy successors of the Minutemen of the Revolution, the volunteers of the Civil War, the Doughboys and GIs of the world wars.
Fast forward 20 years to September 1, 2021, the immediate aftermath of the most sweeping foreign-policy failure in American history. From afar, through our screens, we watched—shocked, horrified, heartbroken, infuriated—the disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan.
New images stung our national consciousness: the Taliban triumphantly parading U.S. military equipment through the streets of Kabul; the chaos and panic on the tarmac of Hamid Karzai Airport; desperate people clinging to the fuselage of a departing U.S. military cargo plane and one man falling to his death; an American soldier rescuing, over a wall and through barbed wire, an Afghan infant; and 13 young American patriots, the once proud and lethal instruments of our united national resolve, now the tragic last casualties in a lost cause.
September 1 is the bookend to a 20-year odyssey that began on September 11. The significance—symbolic and substantive—of an army of zealots humiliating the world's sole superpower and chief defender of liberty, not once but twice, and frustrating its democratic policy objectives, is difficult to exaggerate. It has already begun to cast a long, dark shadow on America that is likely to persist indefinitely. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, this is an especially bitter pill to swallow. It should prompt among thoughtful and patriotic Americans heartfelt soul-searching.
To that end, I offer this hard lesson. Though the causes of our failure in Afghanistan are legion, one thing is certain: we did not fail because we were defeated; we failed because we gave in. The enemy bested us in only its resolve—deep, patient, enduring constancy of purpose born of fanatical zeal for its cause, a fickle but priceless resource in a democratic society.
Only once in my lifetime has America shown similar resolve: in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. But that resolve was squandered by our senior political and military leaders. Once a house united in the good fight against radical Islamic terrorism, we devolved into a house bitterly divided. Today, we are more divided than at any time since the Civil War. A house divided cannot stand; a people divided cannot muster resolve. In the failure of 9/1, we glimpse the seeds of our decline. A hard lesson indeed.
Peter Jennings served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. His military service includes three combat tours in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghan wars in which he earned the Bronze Star Medal with "V" device for valor. He is now an Associate Professor of Management, Economics, and Business Administration at Hillsdale College.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
