Global Terror Threat After 9/11 Attacks and Unlearned Lessons
Even though 25 years have passed since the 9/11 attacks, the global terror threat continues, and extremist ideologies and jihadist groups persist.
As twenty-five years pass since the 9/11 attacks in New York, the global terror threat and extremist ideologies continue to operate with state backing. The US and the international community, meanwhile, struggle to draw long-term counter-terrorism lessons.
9/11 and Distorted History
Twenty-five years ago, the September 11 attacks carried out in New York are being portrayed as an ordinary event organized only by extremists from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon, alongside Pakistani logistical planners, without addressing fundamentalist Wahhabi ideology. Apart from the 19 Islamist militants, 2,977 innocent people lost their lives in the suicide plane attacks.
Allies from Past to Present
It was later revealed that the plots behind the attacks were hatched on both sides of the Durand Line by Osama bin Laden and Pakistan-born Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. While Khalid Sheikh was held under US custody, Laden was killed by American forces at a military compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. The US, for its part, had maintained close relations with Pakistan in the past.
Afghanistan and the Taliban Process
The US initially supported the establishment of the Taliban regime led by Mullah Omar in 1996. However, upon realizing that Osama bin Laden was being sheltered by the Afghan regime, it distanced itself from this Deobandi regime. Following a twenty-year occupation, the US was forced to withdraw from Kabul on August 15, 2021, in the face of Pakistan-backed Taliban forces.
Unchanging Global Threats
Pan-Islamist jihadist groups continue to operate with impunity in Pakistan, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia with the covert or overt support of states. While extremist ideologies like Wahhabi and Salafi maintain their presence, anti-radicalization programs fail to achieve the desired success.
India and Regional Security
While the US administration continues its destabilizing moves, countries like India—battling its neighbors Pakistan and its extensions in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—remain at the center of the counter-terrorism game. While there are tendencies in the Western world to forget 9/11, experts emphasize that the risks persist.