By W. James Antle III
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/w-james-antle-iii
Somber ceremonies marking the 9/11 attacks are a hallowed annual tradition, but as the 20th anniversary arrives with the Taliban suddenly back in control of Afghanistan, America's enduring sense of loss is compounded by the realization that, in many ways, we're back where we started.
Any “mission accomplished” moment President Joe Biden hoped to deliver by ending America’s longest war ahead of the historic date was irrevocably marred by the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed government and its replacement by a regime of militant Guantanamo Bay alumni .
Four of the “Taliban Five” have been appointed to key roles in the Taliban’s caretaker government in Kabul. The fifth was reportedly appointed to be the governor of a province in eastern Afghanistan last month. All five men had served in the Taliban government that was deposed in retaliation for 9/11 and were imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay until their release in a prisoner exchange for U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl. Sirajuddin Haqqani , who is wanted by the FBI for terrorism charges, was named acting interior minister.
“Meet the new boss,” said a former Republican national security official. “Same as the old boss.”
The scenes in Afghanistan have prompted veterans, policymakers, and ordinary voters to question whether justice was served for 9/11 and whether the ensuing two decades of warfare were worth it .
On a sunny Tuesday morning in 2001, 19 al Qaeda terrorists hijacked and crashed planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. It was a horrific scene of mass murder without precedent in U.S. history and the most direct attack on the homeland since the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor almost 70 years before.
Yet, the immediate reaction by the public was a degree of unity unseen since in a country riven by political polarization. George W. Bush had won the contested 2000 presidential election by the narrowest of margins in Florida, a state where his younger brother was governor, only after the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a 5-4 decision, one that exactly reflected the split between conservative and liberal blocs. His Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Al Gore, finished nearly 540,000 votes ahead nationwide, making Bush the first popular vote loser to reach the White House since Benjamin Harrison unseated Grover Cleveland in 1888.
Bush soared to job approval ratings in excess of 90% in the wake of 9/11 as the country rallied around its president. Three days after the attack, he traveled to New York City, where he had lost all five boroughs and received just 18% of the vote. Wearing a blue windbreaker, he surveyed the rubble and addressed workers clearing the wreckage, still seeking to rescue people.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/20-years-later-america-afghanistan-have-come-full-circle