Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
For many of us, the images of that day, the words and actions that followed, remain an indelible part of who we are. The attacks — and, more importantly, our country’s response to them — reshaped our world.
But while those who witnessed Sept. 11 can instantly be transported back to where they were that day, 18 years is a long time. Freshman college students were infants when the attacks occurred. Sept. 11, 2001 is just something they’ve read about online. They’re as able to comprehend the impact of that day as much as those of us born after Dec. 7, 1941 understand Pearl Harbor. HBO even produced and aired a documentary this year on 9/11 to share with younger generations who lack first-hand knowledge.
It’s vitally important that we as a nation and as individual communities never forget the Americans who lost their lives in the attacks, never forget the first responders who paid the ultimate price in the line of duty and the military personnel who have died or sustained injuries, both mental and physical, since. The Arkansas 9/11 Memorial is here in El Dorado, just south of the El Dorado Conference Center. Four names — the four Arkansans who died on Sept. 11, 2001— are engraved on the monument: Sara Elizabeth Low, Malissa White-Higgins, Nehamon Lyons IV and Thomas E. Burnett, Jr.
Eighteen years is a long time. The U.S. has been engaged in a military conflict in Afghanistan for those 18 years and one in Iraq since 2003. Those military engagements and other related operations have also had a profound impact on our country.
The cost of the War Against Terror, in terms of lives and money, is devastating. A 2018 report from Brown University’s Watson Institute estimates around 500,000 people have died in America’s wars following 9/11: most of those deaths, some 250,000 or so, have been civilians. About 15,000 are U.S. military service members, Department of Defense civilian contractors and U.S. contractors. That tally doesn’t include deaths in Syria, or indirect deaths.
Some 53,700 American soldiers have been reported as injured in the conflicts as of 2018. Data on the psychological impact of war on service members hasn’t been updated recently, but in 2015, the Congressional Research Service found that more than 300,000 troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries. There were more than 6,000 veteran suicides each year between 2008-16, which is more than 150% the rate of the civilian population.
The financial cost is also staggering: the Watson Institute estimated last year the U.S. had spent $5.9 trillion in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan and on Homeland Security costs (total budgetary costs, includes costs of future care, etc.).
We don’t reference all of this to say the War on Terror was unnecessary. But Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, are weary of these unending wars. Our elected leaders need to bring about a swift and meaningful end to these conflicts.
Eighteen years is too long.