The long and complex political legacy of September 11

CNN
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At least one thing is sacred.

In an act of unity that lasted little longer than a minute of silence, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump put aside their political hostilities and stood together at Ground Zero in Manhattan on Tuesday to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Trump and Harris – who only met during their heated debate on Tuesday night – even shook hands for the second time in less than 24 hours, a gesture apparently orchestrated by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was also in attendance, wearing a navy suit, white shirt and scarlet tie to match Trump’s signature outfit. For a few nostalgic seconds, the memorial ceremony recalled the now-forgotten national coming together in the terrible days of grief and shock following the attacks.

9/11 is now so far in the past that it takes on historic character. Yet for anyone who lived through it, those days linger in the air. The pain never fades for those who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, in the four fuel-laden planes turned into weapons by al-Qaeda terrorists, or for those whose relatives perished in the wars that followed 9/11. A casual glance at a clock showing 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane struck the North Tower on a crisp September morning in New York, can bring back memories of a day at the beginning of the 21st century that will live on in infamy.

Tuesday’s meeting of past, present and future U.S. leaders was a reminder of the still-unfolding cascade of political consequences that the attacks have triggered.

The subsequent bloody overseas wars initiated by the George W. Bush administration after the attacks contributed to public fatigue and loss of trust in state institutions that Trump was able to exploit for his own rise to power. Many of the U.S. soldiers who served multiple tours and died in the global war on terror were reservists from small-town America, from what is now Trump country. And two decades after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the war is at the center of another presidential campaign, as Harris and Trump blame each other for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and a political controversy rages over the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers at Kabul airport.

A chain of unlikely political consequences can also be traced to the attacks. Without the collapse of Bush’s support after the wars became a quagmire, there might not have been a chance for Barack Obama, a young Illinois senator who opposed the Iraq war, to become president. In some ways, Trump’s presidency was born out of the backlash against the first black president. And Biden probably wouldn’t have become president without Trump and the chaos he created. Had Biden not been called back to duty at his advanced age, his running mate Harris would likely have had no chance to run this year after the president withdrew his reelection bid amid public concerns about his ability to fire. Vance, who served in Iraq as a combat correspondent, is the first of the post-9/11 generation of recruits to be on a major party presidential ticket.

Nearly a quarter of a century later, a new power struggle has replaced terrorism as the greatest geopolitical threat. Osama bin Laden has been dead for more than 13 years. And what underscores the passage of time: some young voters born after September 11 will be running for president for the second time this year.

Yet the world’s worst terrorist attack still has a powerful psychological and political half-life and is deeply embedded in the American psyche, as we are reminded every September.