20 years since 9/11: What could this mean for Gen Z?
A demonstrator holds a sign that reads ‘No more endless wars’ in Washington, D.C., protesting against President Donald Trump’s Jan. 3, 2020 drone strike which killed Iranian and Iraqi officials in Baghdad, Iraq. Photo by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr.
Today, Sept. 11, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. These attacks were conducted via hijacked planes by members of the extremist group Al-Qaeda. In total, four planes were hijacked, with one crashing in rural Pennsylvania, and 2,977 people were killed as a direct result of these attacks.
It is notable that while the years 1996-2012 officially delineate the period in which Gen Z was born, the lack of memory of 9/11 is a crucial characteristic of our generation. We have grown up in a world where we have only ever known the consequences of such a fateful day but do not remember the trauma and fear of that tragedy.
Nevertheless, since 9/11, the tragedy has been used as a justification to commit a disproportionate amount of violence and harm around the world all in the name of “national security.” On the 20th anniversary, it is worth understanding what this day has come to signify in world history and the injustices we are living through.
First and foremost, since 9/11, the United States has not had a single day of peace. As for Gen Z USAmericans, we have spent most, if not all, of our lives with our country at war, even if it becomes more and more distant to the average USAmerican every year.
“…the U.S. military can easily take down governments, but it cannot build them.”
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 has approached, President Joe Biden has pulled troops out of Afghanistan. Now that the U.S. has significantly withdrawn from Afghanistan, an immense amount of damage has been left behind. As a result of the U.S. occupation, it is estimated that 241,000 people have died in war zones between Afghanistan and its neighboring country Pakistan, with more than 71,000 of those deaths being civilians. Furthermore, the Taliban, or the militia group in control of Afghanistan prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion, has regained complete control of Afghanistan after the U.S.-backed government collapsed.
One reason militant fundamentalist groups like the Taliban have had such success in Afghanistan is due to the history of the U.S. initially conducting Operation Cyclone in 1979. During this operation, the U.S. funded the mujahidin in order to defeat the new socialist government of Afghanistan, which was allied with the Soviet Union. This support laid the groundwork for the formation of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda once its leader, bin Laden, claimed only a decade later that the U.S. had betrayed the Muslim world by remaining in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War. Bin Laden’s switch in allegiance demonstrates how the wars of the U.S. always return home to harm its own citizens.
In addition to Afghanistan following 9/11, the U.S. has been involved in many more “counterterror wars” across the world in countries such as Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. A 2020 report estimates that from these conflicts, the U.S. has contributed to the displacement of at least 37 million people around the world.
Not only has the war on terror targeted people abroad, but it has also terrorized people within U.S. borders. Whether it is the blatant religious profiling of Muslims, the attack on USAmericans’ civil rights and privacy, the lack of adequate physical and social infrastructure due to the federal budget’s heavy military spending or the thousands of veterans that have taken their lives after serving the military, pain is also deeply felt by USAmericans in the name of national security.
“To be serious about environmentalism is to be serious about anti-militarism”
Through this endless war on terror, the U.S. has overextended itself, thus damaging its imperial status as it fails to create anything productive — all it can do is destroy.
The occupation of Afghanistan, which is also known as the “graveyard of empires,” has shown that the U.S. military can easily take down governments, but it cannot build them.
As Gen Z voices become more prominent in politics, we have the opportunity to create a turning point in U.S. militarism. Since young people today are in favor of progressive politics and are concerned about climate change, it would serve us well to connect environmental degradation with the destruction brought about by the U.S. war machine that has significantly ramped up since Sept. 11, 2001.
Between activities such as operating over 800 bases globally, being the largest single consumer of oil in the world and fighting wars for oil itself, such massive pollution would make the Pentagon the world’s 55th largest CO2 emitter if it were a country.
To be serious about environmentalism is to be serious about anti-militarism, as these two issues are deeply connected.
After 20 years, it is clear that the U.S. empire never truly launched a global war to end terrorism nor for democratic nation-building. Instead, the legacy of 9/11 has shown young people that the U.S. fights wars for natural resources and global hegemony. The need for an end to the U.S. role as the world police is clear as the climate catastrophe unravels — instead Gen Z has the opportunity to push for a world built on peace and solidarity.
