Next Saturday, September 11th, will be the 20th anniversary of 9/11: 20 years of national trauma in the USA, 20 years of the war on terror.
A war that comes to a temporary end with the withdrawal of western troops from Afghanistan. A war that nobody wanted anymore and in which it became more and more unclear why it was actually still being waged.
Seen in this way, the withdrawal of troops is a relief. Albeit a painful and unworthy one.
It is no coincidence that US President Joe Biden originally intended to end the Afghanistan mission on September 11th. He wanted to symbolically end a difficult chapter. If September 11, 2001 was the tragic beginning of a controversial mission to the Hindu Kush from the beginning, September 11, 2021 should have been the end of this mission.
But Biden’s plan failed terribly. The longest war in US history was ultimately even shorter than planned. The last soldiers were withdrawn from Afghanistan at the end of August. Instead of symbolism, the focus was only on one thing: Save yourself who can.
This is understandable in view of the suffering that the war on terror has caused worldwide. It is estimated that over a million deaths, including countless civilians.
And since Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, was tracked down and killed in Pakistan ten years ago, support for the Afghanistan mission has increasingly declined.
The conservative “Wall Street Journal” recently projected a new 9/11 moment for Biden after the desolate withdrawal from Afghanistan. A déjà vu: the Islamists cheer and America, once the undisputed world power, is brought to its knees.
That may be true in essence. Biden is clearly struck. And yet the direct comparison with 2001 does not match the facts. Because the USA has completely different problems today than it did back then: the conflict with China, coping with the corona pandemic, the social division of the country. For the Midterm Elections, the groundbreaking congressional elections in autumn 2022, these will be the topics of the hour.
We must not forget the hardship that the people in Afghanistan are currently experiencing. But if Biden now resolutely tackles the many other issues, soon no one will talk much about the chaotic end of the military operation. The US population will always remember its cause, the 9/11 attacks.
It would be important for Biden to master this balancing act between remembering and forgetting. Because the shock of 2021 unsettled and polarized the United States. The 2001 shock, however, united the country.