A quarter-century after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the effects of the US-led “war on terror” remain evident in American foreign policy, the justice system and rhetoric toward Muslims, amid criticism of the continued reliance on military force and delays in the trial of those accused of planning the attacks.
The human toll and displacement caused by the wars
Critical academic studies examine that war as a political project that went beyond pursuing armed groups, helping entrench the image of Muslims as a threat while creating a cross-border system of surveillance and criminalization that affected Muslim communities in the West and war zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The continued military option and rising Islamophobia
In an assessment of that era’s legacy, diplomatic correspondent Howard LaFranchi documented the United States’ continued reliance on military solutions, alongside rising Islamophobia during President Donald Trump’s administration. He pointed to a travel ban that primarily targeted Muslim-majority countries and remarks by Vice President J.D. Vance about alleged efforts by American Muslims to impose Sharia law.
Michael Doyle, a professor of international relations at Columbia University, described this approach as tending toward a new, anti-Muslim “crusade.” The report also linked Trump’s war on Iran and threats to erase “Iranian civilization” to the “clash of civilizations” thesis advanced by American political scientist Samuel Huntington.
Huntington’s thesis holds that post-Cold War conflicts would be between major civilizations, cultures and religions, rather than being limited to competition among states. The theory emerged alongside the rise of the United States as the sole superpower, the first Gulf War and the deployment of US forces in Saudi Arabia.
The report quoted researcher Fawaz Gerges as saying these factors helped turn the United States, rather than communism, into the main enemy in the eyes of armed movements. Gerges, an expert on jihadist movements at the London School of Economics, warned that the notion of perpetual conflict remains present in the American mindset, as does the continued use of military force as the first tool for addressing international crises.
Commenting on the war against Iran launched by a president who had pledged to end the “forever wars” in the Middle East, Gerges said he had not imagined a return to conditions resembling the period after the September 11 attacks. Researchers do not limit this legacy to relations with the Muslim world; Doyle argues that the world has entered a conflict among major powers resembling a “new Cold War.”
Under this interpretation, the conflict pits a bloc led by China, Russia and North Korea against a divided West, reproducing the logic of confrontation on geopolitical grounds. Some former supporters of the post-attack wars have also acknowledged that they were a mistake, according to the report.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s stalled trial at Guantanamo
The legacy of that period also extends to the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and those accused with him of planning the September 11 attacks. The case was due to be moved to a federal court in Manhattan, but the administration of former President Barack Obama reversed course in 2009 on removing it from the military commissions system at Guantanamo prison, amid opposition in Congress and security concerns.
The defendants remain detained under the “law of war” 25 years later, while a fifth military judge is hearing the case. The trial has been postponed until 2028, with the possibility that it may never take place.
David Raskin, a former US Justice Department prosecutor specializing in terrorism cases, described the delay as an ongoing moral and legal failure, arguing that the civilian courts had lost an opportunity to demonstrate the ability of American law to handle the case.
