The ongoing war that began on 9/11

The 9/11 zone in New York is a quiet space inside one of the world’s most bustling cities. The sound of water as it flows from the edges of the two rectangular pools where the Twin Towers once stood is almost meditative. Yet inside the 9/11 museum, the twisted steel foundations of the towers confront you with the horror of that day 25 years ago. There is the intense sadness and solemn quiet of a graveyard.

After the end of the Cold War, the West deluded itself that “peace in our time” had finally arrived. This was a fatal misunderstanding. For decades, Islamist extremists had been spreading an ideology of taking the battle to the “infidel” enemy’s soil – and developing the capability to do so.

On September 11, 2001, four US aeroplanes were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists – two crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, one struck the US Defence complex at the Pentagon and one fell to earth on empty land after its passengers bravely fought the terrorists. 9/11 was arguably the largest and most devastating terrorist attack in history, leaving almost 3000 people dead.

The response from the US-led West was to launch the “global war on terrorism” – a vast, transnational, multi-faceted battle. The campaign began with US invasions of Afghanistan and then Iraq. The aim was to create shockwaves that would rattle the Middle East into greater openness to Western values, like human rights and democracy. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned in 2004 that realising this vision, “may take decades [and] will require a commitment of many years”.

Indeed, years of conflicts followed. Inspired by the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 and facilitated by the internet – a new way to (almost) freely communicate – the Arab Spring erupted in 2011. It was a wave of popular revolts against the Arab world’s authoritarian governments, but it ended with little positive change. In 2014, the ISIS terror state was created between Iraq and Syria, until it was mostly defeated some years later. In December 2024, the Syrian dictator and war criminal, Bashar al Assad, was removed by a movement led by former jihadist Ahmad al Shara’a.

Then, in the early morning of October 7, 2023, terror struck again, when thousands of Hamas terrorists and other Gazans invaded southern Israel, massacring more than 1200 women, men and children, raping women and kidnapping more than 250 people, and also destroying and pillaging thousands of properties. The war that ensued saw Israel fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. Two wars against Iran, led by the US and Israel, then followed.

October 7 and its consequences should have signalled a new stage in the war against terror. It should have been a warning about the devastating consequences of allowing terrorism, extremism and radicalisation to flourish, amidst a lack of basic freedom and democracy.

Yet, the opposite seems to have happened. In 2026, terror-supporting regimes still stand. In Afghanistan, the extremist Islamist Taliban rules again, after the US shamelessly fled the country in 2021. Iraq remains divided, poor and unstable. The corrupt and oppressive regime in Iran also still stands, aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapon and continuing to nurture a network of terror proxies, from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank and Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen and the Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Nuclear-armed rogue regimes China, North Korea and Russia assist Iran, even as China and North Korea and Iran help sustain Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU and the UN have become diplomatic playgrounds in which it often appears the main game being played is appeasement vis-à-vis states that back terrorists.

Above all, simple distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, and terror and peace are being trampled under an ugly wave of antisemitism and antizionism. Violent and hateful protests and acts of terror against Jews all over the world are led by an unholy Green-Red alliance between extremist Islamists and radical left activists. In parallel, far right groups promote the old-new blood libel of Jewish control over world leaders and the media.

When two extremist Muslims shot and killed 15 innocent people, most of them Jews celebrating Chanukah, at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December 2025, they were merely writing the latest chapter in the war that began on 9/11.

To win this crucial war against terror for the sake of our children, we must continue to teach the young to hold on to the pillars of our culture the terrorists tried to topple at 9/11 – truth and moral clarity. Victory against terror is possible if we remember these twin towers that must guide us.

Dr Ran Porat teaches Israel and Middle Eastern Affairs at Monash University and is a research associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. He is also a research associate at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Herzliya.