Did the World Change?
Yesterday, September 11, 2026, was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania that killed almost 3000 Americans. “9/11” entered our vocabulary, a date/word that symbolizes shock, death, and national resolve. The anniversary occasioned many reflections by politicians and pundits; I read a few, which means I didn’t read many hundreds of others.
In the days after 9/11, we learned that the terrorists were part of an Islamist group called Al Qaeda. Within a few months, President Bush was leading America in a “war on terror” that meant invading Afghanistan to root out the Taliban government that harbored Al Qaeda. The American occupation of Afghanistan lasted through the Bush, Obama, and first Trump administrations. Our military finally withdrew from Afghanistan under Biden. Both Republican and Democratic presidents thought that, in some way, the war on terror required war in Asia.
The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan. Islamist extremists rule the government of Iran. Mr. Trump, who campaigned against “forever wars” and who preached a doctrine of “America first,” launched a war against Iran. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu joined Trump in denouncing Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons and justifying the attack on Iran. Trump has declared success or victory several times, but he seems unable to understand that the Revolutionary Guard sees its continued hold on power in Iran as victory. As I have said to some of my friends, Trump has started a war and lost it without ever understanding that he lost it.
So: it has been 25 years. Did 9/11 change the world? Not from a biblical perspective. The empires of the world come and go. Human beings fight for wealth and power—and for ideologies and slogans. We are sinners, willing to destroy each other out of envy or fear. The terrorists of Al Qaeda were motivated by Islamism and a host of stored resentments. Surely a just God would look with favor on their attack on the organized Satanism of America.
The terrorist mindset is not all that different from the revolutionary Marxist, who knows that history is on his or her side. “We know what to do with capitalists,” said Lenin. “We shoot them.” (The actual quote may be apocryphal, but the attitude is right.)
The post-9/11 world, just like the pre-9/11 world, needs escape from the nationalisms and ideologies of revenge (labeled “justice” by the true believers). We need someone to teach us to love our enemies. Of course, anyone who genuinely taught a gospel of love would get crucified. If anyone wants to follow him today, he or she must be prepared for the consequences.
