Terror attacks were just part of our true 'longest war'
When the last U.S. forces lifted off from Kabul Airport, it was said that America's longest war had come to an end. It had not.
The 9/11 attacks on America raised the ante in the struggle against terrorism and extremism, though hundreds of American lives had already been taken in Beirut (1983), New York (1993), Oklahoma City (1995), Saudi Arabia (1996), Nairobi and Dar es Salaam (1998), and at the USS Cole (2000) in Yemen.
NATO invoked Article Five for the first time and America went after al-Qaida, which had been harbored by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. When the Taliban leader - Mullah Omar - refused to turn over Osama bin Laden, America and its allies among the Northern tribes of Afghanistan were able to quickly overthrow the Taliban government. What kept America in Afghanistan, however, was the persistent threat of terrorism.
That threat has not gone away and now there are new sources both foreign and domestic that keep our intelligence community focused. Most Americans are not aware of the various threats that form like tropical depressions and are stopped by U.S. actions or, more often than not, joint action by the U.S. and its allies.
One legacy of 9/11 has been the more coordinated efforts of the intelligence community under a centralized Director of National Intelligence and the strengthened ties with other intelligence services around the world. The steady stream of possible threats is one reason we have created an Africa Command and that Special Operations forces have swelled to 75,000 personnel and operate in some 80 countries. And now we must think hard about cyberterrorism.
The shock of 9/11 made Americans more fearful and more suspicious of foreigners, especially Muslims. For a time, it made them more willing to shoulder the burdens of military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and elsewhere. That's not true anymore. Many who thought we should stay in Afghanistan a little longer to get more people out changed their minds when an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 13 American servicemen and women.
Our longest war is not against the Taliban or ISIS or al-Qaida or domestic anti-government groups that train with weapons in remote locations, until the day when they decide to act - to blow up a federal building or kidnap a governor or storm the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power that is at the heart of our democracy.
Our longest war is against intolerance and extremism, and against those who believe that any means are justified in achieving one's own vision - whether that is a caliphate under Sharia law or a libertarian society where the government's writ does not reach.
The 9/11 attacks also created - for a moment - an incredible sense of unity and resolve in America until that unity was undone by political combat that seems, at times, as tribal as Afghanistan. Yet, some unity of purpose is still vital to our progress as a nation and in the struggle against extremist ideologies. At times this will take the form of sending our servicemen and women into harm's way or a drone strike in a far-off land.
However, the greatest weapon against extremism is to demonstrate that these are blind alleys that lead nowhere. We do that by coming together just enough to take on the problems that bedevil our nation and the world - a pandemic, climate change, immigrant and refugee flows, extreme poverty ... the list seems to grow longer each day. If we do that, those who sacrificed on 9/11 and since will have done so in the service of fostering the more perfect union that can be a true beacon for the world.
• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.