Before September 11, 2001, America, both as a nation-state and as a society, vastly different from today. First, it was never engaged in wars, domestic or foreign (Officially). Believe it or not, a majority of Americans did not know household names like Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda. Secondly, it was never the colossal surveillance state it is today, and as hard as it is to believe, Americans did not have to take off their shoes or risk detainment for carrying box cutters as they went through airport security. From a historical perspective, every aspect of America’s society has changed drastically, overtly, and covertly. This project is an impartial historical analysis of the biggest impacts the 9/11 attacks have had on America and her people.
The first impact of the 9/11 events on American society is its increasing involvement in wars on foreign lands. Less than a month after 9/11, for instance, US troops landed in Afghanistan to bring down Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that had claimed responsibility for the attacks (Azami, 2020). The troops also aimed to depose the Taliban government that harbored Al-Qaeda. Similarly, US troops were deployed in Iraq in 2003 to depose Saddam Hussein. Though there was no concrete evidence linking Hussein to the terrorist attacks, his country was invaded, and he was deposed for allegedly producing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
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Since then, the US has been openly involved in foreign wars, especially the presence of US troops on these lands. For instance, the war against terror, as it is now known, saw the US military involved in the longest war in US history, from 2003 to 2014. Even though official combat operations ended in 2014, Afghanistan still hosts over 8000 troops due to the remnants of the Taliban (Cutler, 2017). US military presence in Afghanistan is not expected to cease any time soon. In fact, on the grounds of poor security conditions, President Trump claimed that he planned on increasing the troop numbers in the country.
The second impact 9/11 has had on American society has been to divide the public and subject immigrants under undue scrutiny. For instance, in the country, through the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), there has been growing intolerance for immigrants. Before 2001, the annual deportations from the country were approximately 200,000 every year (Kaushal, 2019). However, these numbers have doubled up by 2010, where over half of the deportees were deported for small and non-violent crimes (Kaushal, 2019; Tavarez, 2020). This shows that the US government and Americans did become intolerant of immigrants. The irony is that practically everyone identifying themselves as an American is literally an immigrant too.
Intolerance aside, the Secure Communities program exacerbated the situation by unfairly inconveniencing the lives of immigrants and punishing them. This is because, in its short tenure, the program granted law enforcement officers permission to check the individual’s immigration status when they were booked in any jail. As a result, numerous immigrants found themselves dragged into deportation proceedings for minor infractions, like running a red light (Signorelli, 2018). These events, however, are insignificant to the inhumane renditioning and torture of foreigners at Guantanamo in Cuba. Enemy combatants were held indefinitely and denied their basic human rights, like the right to legal representation. More significantly, however, is that the general public opinion was that the actions were justified for national security reasons.
The third historically significant change is the change in travel regulations, especially air travel. Before 9/11, it was possible to show up late for a domestic flight and breeze through the virtually non-existent security with a drink at hand and not having to show any documents, such as an ID. The Transport Security Administration had not yet been conceived of. Airport security, on the other hand, was in the hands of private companies with some lacking fully-fledged metal detectors and X-rays.
After 9/11, however, airport security was overhauled and united under the authority and direction of the TSA. Security procedures like pat-downs, going through metal detectors, removing shoes before going through airport security have since become the norm (Wood & Raj, 2019). Proponents for the changes have cited that the new measures have made air travel safer and minimizing the chances of another 9/11 from happening. Even then, it is still evident that the security procedures have added significant travel time for average travelers. Additionally, the intolerance for immigrants and fear of another terrorist attack has led to numerous cases of infringed privacy rights. Furthermore, certain travelers, especially those from the Middle East, have been under undue scrutiny and automatic suspicion without evidence (Wood & Raj, 2019).
The biggest and covert change (until Snowden’s whistleblowing) has been the transformation of America into a massive surveillance state. Compared to before 9/11, the US surveillance apparatus had grown to arm it with an undisclosed black budget of $53 billion by 2013 (Johnson, 2017). From the classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the covert surveillance and minimum oversight allowed agencies to violate the privacy rights of millions of Americans. Scooping communications between suspected terrorists could be justified under reasons of national security (Johnson, 2017). However, the surveillance also violated the privacy rights of other Americans with no actual or alleged connection to a terrorist. It is still undisclosed why such violations occurred, but that is beyond the scope of a historical analysis of the 9/11 attacks.
In conclusion, the impact of the 9/11 attacks on American society has been significant and ongoing. Issues that were previously unrelated to terrorism, like undue scrutiny and unfair treatment of immigrants, are now accepted parts of American culture. Though I was directly involved or affected by the event, the aftershocks are still evident in every aspect. Furthermore, I chose this event when I came to the realization that I could not think of a life where state surveillance was publicly acknowledged and an accepted fact of life. From then on, I was interested in the other ways the event changed American culture, overtly and covertly. A historian continuing my thesis statement would, therefore, look into other aspects, like the long-term effects of 9/11 on America’s financial institutions that I considered to be outside the scope of this paper.
References
Azami, A. S. (2020). The Post-9/11 US-Led State-Building in Afghanistan. Central European Journal of Politics , 6 (1), 1-25.
Cutler, L. (2017). Strategic Counterterrorism in Afghanistan. In President Obama’s Counterterrorism Strategy in the War on Terror (pp. 13-36). Palgrave Pivot, New York.
Johnson, L. K. (2017). Spy watching: Intelligence accountability in the United States . Oxford University Press.
Kaushal, N. (2019). Blaming immigrants: nationalism and the economics of global movement . Columbia University Press.
Signorelli, G. L. (2018). Immigration Waivers and the Psychological Effects on Family Members Throughout Their Loved One's Legalization Process. SUL Rev. , 46 , 195.
Tavarez, R. M. (2020). “I Have the Right to Family, I Have the Right to an Education”: Family Narratives on the Impact of Deportation on Latino Children’s Learning Experiences (Doctoral dissertation, Saint Peter's University).
Wood, S., & Raj, R. (2019). The impact of security scanners at airports and ethnic minority travellers’ experience. Security Journal , 1-21.
