When Osama bin Laden used civilian airplanes as missiles in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, he was motivated by a singular thought: America was a rotting corpse, a paper tiger. Americans were weak, and the nation would crumble under even the tiniest display of force. Twenty years later, more Americans cover their faces than in many Muslim countries, and a small percentage of radical leftists are allowed to run the country. It is time to ask an uncomfortable question: Was bin Laden right about the United States?
The Response
The 9/11 terror attack was not merely a psychological shock to the American people. It was also a shock to the political system. People were rightfully asking, “how could this happen?” So many opportunities to prevent the attack were wasted due to incompetence and inefficiency.
Robert Mueller, appointed as the new director of FBI just a few weeks before the attack, was motivated to transform the organization fundamentally. It was an attempt to improve the system so that 9/11 could never happen again. His changes eventually led to the bureau we have today, which participated in the Russia collusion hoax and regards Trump-supporters as “domestic terrorists.”
Many liberals reacted to the attack by concluding that there was something wrong about “religion,” which they, in their minds, translated into Christianity. Thus, one of the responses to 9/11 was a secularization that later became the fertile feeding grounds of the most virulent cult in American history: wokism. Rather than asking what was wrong with radical Islam, many Americans asked themselves what was wrong with America that made Islamists hate them so much. Many concluded that it was because America was systemically racist and oppressive. This strain of thought laid the foundation for the rapid rise of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 project.
The Patriot Act
The right responded predictably with the Patriot Act. It dramatically expanded the powers of intelligence to surveil and circumvent civil rights. The definition of “domestic terrorism” was broadened, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court was strengthened as a tool. One can easily argue that the intentions were noble and that these curtailments of civil liberties prevented significant terrorist attacks on American soil. Still, only 15 years later, the FISA court was used to spy on a presidential candidate.
(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Some also argue that the Patriot Act and the draconian security measures at airports made a pathway for equally draconian responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Waking Up
On the surface, bin Laden appears to have had a keenly observant assessment of the United States. All the weaknesses and fragilities that today are evident to everyone, he saw only a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union when the United States was at the height of its gloating and self-congratulation. However, an analogous situation occurred with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Imperial Japan had the same assessment of America as bin Laden. If Japan just displayed its mighty strength and power, the United States would crumble in fear into a fetal position.
The opposite happened. It took years to rev up the American military machinery, but by 1945, Japan had to experience its homeland being fire-bombed and nuked. A similar rude awakening is currently taking place in America, this time in response to CRT, lockdowns, and unprecedented totalitarian measures on American soil. Although those who hate America have gained much ground since 9/11, all is not lost. On the contrary, Americans are finally starting to wake up from their slumber of prosperity, and they are not happy about what they see.
Thus, whether bin Laden was correct or not is still a choice to be made by the American people. The question should not be, “was he right?” but rather, “should we let him be?” More and more people are growing the courage to say “hell, no.”
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Read more from Caroline Adana.
