On 9/11, America faced foreign attackers. Today, the danger comes from within. | Editorial
There were 231 incidents of domestic terrorism between 2010 and 2021. Since 2020, the number of FBI domestic terrorism investigations has more than doubled.
The United States and the world were forever changed by the terror attacks 23 years ago that killed nearly 3,000 people, brought down the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and saw passengers give their lives to stop a fourth hijacked plane that ultimately crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa.
The traumatic events shocked Americans and united the country much like the bombing of Pearl Harbor did in 1941. But the bonds of fellowship and common purpose did not last after the shocking events of Sept. 11, 2001.
More than two decades after, the anniversary brings promises to “never forget.” Indeed, the many innocent lives lost deserve to be remembered. So does the valor of the first responders who gave their lives trying to help others.
It is also worth remembering what else has been lost along the way.
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The so-called Global War on Terror launched in response to the attacks resulted in two long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and more than $8 trillion in tax dollars.
The first casualty of war was the truth. Elected officials, starting with then-President George W. Bush, lied about the rationale for invading Iraq, while the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, remained at large for nearly a decade.
While some plots have been foiled, global terrorism continues. Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated many of the mistakes America made after Sept. 11 by waging a ruthless war in Gaza with no clear endgame, killing thousands of innocent women and children and sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Global terrorism has risen across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The horrific war crimes and targeted attacks by Russia on hospitals and schools in Ukraine amounts to terrorism.
Here at home, occluded by all the global confrontations, there has been a sharp rise in domestic terrorism.
There were 231 incidents of domestic terrorism between 2010 and 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Since 2020, the number of FBI domestic terrorism investigations has more than doubled.
Since 2010, nearly every state has experienced at least one incident of domestic terrorism. Nearly every incident has involved an assault rifle. The killers are usually white males, including some born after 9/11.
In 2016, 49 people were killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in the deadliest attack against LGBTQ people in U.S. history. In 2017, one person was killed and 28 others were injured during a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va.
In 2018, 11 people were murdered in a synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. In 2019, 23 people were killed and 20 others were injured in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, by a gunman who wrote a manifesto that cited a supposed “Hispanic invasion.”
In 2022, 10 people were shot and killed in a grocery store by a white gunman in a racially motivated attack in Buffalo, N.Y. The 19-year-old white gunman, who was driven by hate, pleaded guilty to murder and domestic terrorism.
The killings underscore the assessment by Homeland Security that white supremacists here pose the same terror threat as ISIS to the United States.
The entire country watched the threat play out during the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the insurrection as “domestic terrorism.”
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Then-President Donald Trump was impeached for inciting the attack. He was also criminally indicted for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which spurred the insurrection.
After Trump supporters breached the Capitol, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) correctly said, “There is a domestic enemy in the White House.”
That domestic enemy is once again running for president — with the support of white nationalist groups who Trump called “my people.” Indeed, a man dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes attended a rally for Trump on Sunday in Connecticut. It was not the first time such extremists turned out for Trump.
In just 20 years, America went from defending itself from a foreign terrorist group to a sharp rise in domestic terror. Instead of winning the war against violent extremists, a domestic enemy is knocking on the door of the Oval Office.
On this anniversary of Sept. 11, we should never forget that Trump is incapable of defending the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
That’s because Trump is the enemy within.