[ THE CONFLICTS THAT FOLLOWED ]
The 9/11 Wars: America’s N
By Patrick J. Buchanan
OT SINCE PEARL HARBOR, 60 years before, had we been as united as in that September after Islamic terrorists brought down the twin towers. The nation stood behind the president in his resolve to exact retribution on the men who had done this, and those who abetted the mass murder of 3,000 innocents. And George W. Bush rose to the occasion.
Patrick J. Buchanan served as senior adviser to three U.S. presidents: Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He also ran for president in 1992, 1996, and 2000. A syndicated columnist, Buchanan was a founding member of NBC’s The McLaughlin Group, CNN’s The Capitol Gang, and CNN’s Crossfi re. A current regular on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, his latest book is Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2015?
months,
Within three a northern
alliance of anti-Taliban Afghans, assembled by U.S. special forces and supported by U.S. air power, had driven into Kabul and deposed Mullah Omar. Osama bin Laden, architect of the massacre, was holed up in Tora Bora, his capture or killing seem- ingly imminent. Fast forward 10 years. Bin Laden is fi nally dead. Seal Team Six saw to it. His body lies on the fl oor of the Arabian Sea. Yet, he
will be among the most infl uential men of this century.
For, as Gavrilo Princip fi red the shot that killed the Austrian Arch- duke in Sarajevo, setting in motion the events that led to the greatest war in history, bin Laden devised the blow that may have brought an end to America’s reign as the last superpower.
62 9|11: A DECADE LATER / NEWSMAX / SEPTEMBER 2011
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED? Bush on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, under the now-infamous banner that left many doubting.
Princip was not responsible for the Great War. It was rather the miscalculations of
the statesmen
of Europe after June 28, 1914. And Osama, though he wounded and provoked America as she had not been since Dec. 7, 1941, did not bring down the American imperium. We did that to ourselves. Ten years have elapsed since 9/11. Looking back, what did the wars launched in response to that atrocity cost? And what did they accomplish? Taking Afghanistan and
Iraq
together, the longest wars in U.S. his- tory, the costs have been immense: 6,000 dead, 40,000 wounded. Over $1 trillion sunk. Hundreds of thou-
sands of Afghan and Iraqi dead. Half a million widows and orphans. Four million Iraqis were uproot- ed; 2 million have fl ed into exile, half of them Christians. We unleashed the fury of Islam on the Christians of Iraq where the murders and mar- tyrdoms do not cease. In a Muslim world we set afi re, Christians every- where face persecution as perceived allies of the “crusaders and Zionists.” Al-Qaida has been eradicated in Afghanistan, but our wars spawned new recruits. Al-Qaida is now in Pakistan. There is an al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida in Iraq, an al-Qaida in Maghreb, an al-Qaida in Somalia. By plunging
BUCHANAN/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES / BUSH/AP IMAGES
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