COLUMNS

On the Anniversary of 9/11, We Reflect on the War Against Jihadism

Scott Stewart

VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor

Sep 11, 2018 | 09:30 GMT

A group of Afghan mujahideen progress behind a wall in the village of Ghazni in southern Afghanistan as they fight Soviet-backed government forces in March 1989.

A group of Afghan mujahideen progress behind a wall in a village of Ghazni in southern Afghanistan as they fight Soviet-backed government forces in March 1989. Al Qaeda, which was formed the previous year, continues to fight against the United States 30 years later.

(JOEL ROBINE/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Seventeen years after the 9/11 attacks — and 30 years after the founding of al Qaeda — there is no end in sight to the wars against jihadists.
Like communist groups in the 20th century, jihadist groups are likely to split further in the 21st century due to differences in personality, theology and vision.
Because military might is not enough to vanquish jihadists, governments such as the United States will also continue their efforts to defeat militants on an ideological level.

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some 3,000 perished in the attack, representing an unprecedented death toll in the history of terrorism – to the extent that the figure far exceeded even the wildest hopes of the al Qaeda planners behind the attack. The loss of life and the scale of the destruction woke the United States from its slumber on the jihadist threat, spurring it to finally respond to al Qaeda's provocations in a powerful manner. The country first invaded Afghanistan, which had given al Qaeda refuge, and later Iraq. 9/11, however, was not the first salvo in the jihadist war, but merely a turning point. Seventeen years on, the war drags on – and will continue to do so until jihadists are defeated not only on the physical battlefield, but also the ideological one....

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