25 years after 9/11: how is America faring?
A quarter of a century has passed since three planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in history to date, leaving 2,996 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. In the wake of these events, then US President George W. Bush declared a global "war on terror". For many commentators the knock-on effects of 9/11 are still felt today.
Growing Islamophobia and anti-Americanism
The terrorist attack marked a turning point for the US and the world, writes Visão:
“11 September 2001 was a watershed in terms of security, forever changing procedures at airports and in public places. It also led the US down a radically polarising path where traditional diplomatic language was swiftly replaced by moral and religious proclamations. ... The climate this created has ultimately redefined the social fabric, civil liberties and institutional architecture of Western democracies. And it has fuelled both Islamophobia on the one hand and hatred of America on the other.”
No longer a bulwark of democracy
The country has lost its way, Corriere della Sera notes:
“America has forfeited its role as a bulwark of Western democracies. Domestically, the drive for national unity that emerged following the al-Qaeda terrorist attack has crumbled, eroded by the Bush administration's colossal and reckless 'War on Terror'. ... An 'imperial' reaction and failed attempt to export democracy: both have damaged Washington's image as the guarantor of the global balance of power in the eyes of both allies and adversaries, while setting in motion a series of undesirable developments at home that ultimately culminated in the sovereignist populism of an increasingly authoritarian Donald Trump.”
Trump is a legacy of the war
Delfi columnist Liudas Dapkus comments:
“Donald Trump's first steps on the path to the pinnacle of power were also closely linked to the world that America began to shape in the wake of 11 September. Xenophobia, ideas about building walls, promises to drive out Muslims – this was the fuel that both he and the entire disaffected section of society whose expectations were later met by the Maga movement poured onto the fire . ... The chaos that Donald Trump is sowing across the world and all the events that still lie ahead are merely dominoes that are still toppling over following that sunny Tuesday morning when aeroplanes crashed into the skyscrapers of Manhattan. ... That was how war was declared on us. It continues to this day.”