How has the fight against terror changed since 9/11?

Tommy Tucker (0:01)

6.46, 14 till 7, Tommy Tucker, WWL. Anniversary of 9, 11, the 25th anniversary. David Schanzer joins us now, our friend, Professor of Public Policy at Duke University. How are you doing, David? It's been a while.

David Schanzer (0:14)

Hi, Tommy. It's always good to talk to you, even on a somber occasion like this.

Tommy Tucker (0:18)

Yeah. Tell me your thoughts as an instructor and how the whole country has changed in 25 years, and even your approach with students when you talk about this with them.

David Schanzer (0:33)

Well, yeah, we have to, of course, teach them what it was like to be here on that day. And I do. I start my class by actually having them watch The Today Show and they move from a cooking segment to coverage of 9-11. And of course, there was confusion after the plane hit the first tower. Nobody knew really what was happening. And then, of course, you see the live on TV, the plane actually steered intentionally into the second tower.

And it's clear after that that America has been attacked and it's an act of mass murder and terrorism and the whole mood of the country and really the world change. And while I don't think you can trace everything that is happening in our world today to 9-11, I think 9-11 has impacted the trajectory of history in many significant ways.

Tommy Tucker (1:25)

How so?

David Schanzer (1:28)

Well, I mean, I think it's affected America and America was the predominant superpower, the sole global superpower in 2000, in 2001

And we had a swagger about ourselves and a great deal of confidence about our mission, our trajectory in the world to spread democracy, to use our power to promote peace and prosperity around the world. And I really think because of 9-11 and because of the way some of the policies we pursued in response to 9-11 turned out, mainly the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also our failure to prevent ISIS from becoming such a powerful, destructive force and many other things. I feel like we've lost our national confidence and in some way, our sense of the American mission in the world. I think there's a lot of uncertainty about that in our society today, a lot of tension, a lot of anger in many ways. And I think that shapes our very politics that we see in our country today. So yeah, Bin Laden, these were not what his intentions were. His intention was to get us out of the Middle East so he could pursue an Islamist revolution of sorts there. But I think he did, maybe unintentionally, impose a pretty bad blow on the American psyche.

Tommy Tucker (3:09)

Do you think there's any way they could have these 19 people, or is there any historical precedent for 19 people causing such a change in the world?

David Schanzer (3:20)

Wow. I have to think hard about that one. Certainly nothing directly comes to mind.

Of course, they had some help, some strategic help in planning, but Achaia was a small organization. And look at what it invoked. It invoked the greatest superpower in the world to go to, in the history of the world, really, to go to war in many places, to change its entire approach to the world, to change its foreign policy, to change its internal domestic laws. That's a lot, you're right.

Tommy Tucker (4:00)

And it's economy as well.

David Schanzer (4:05)

It was an economic blow.

We did recover. I don't think you can say the great recession of 2008 was caused by Al-Qaeda. But, you know, and by some estimates, the Brown cost of war, and I'm not saying it's entirely accurate, but it's an amazing report. They estimate that the 9-11 and its aftermath and its policies have cost the American taxpayer $8 trillion.

Tommy Tucker (4:36)

That's a T, not a B. Consequential, yeah. Let me take a break. We'll pick it up. We can back with David Schanzer, Professor of Public Policy at Duke University. 25th anniversary of 9-11, 6-50, 10 till 7, traffic now, WWL.

6-55, 5 till 7, Tommy Tucker, WWL. On this anniversary of 9-11, 25th anniversary, talking to David Schanzer, Professor of Public Policy at Duke University. Professor, somebody texted in and said, 25 years later, we have this line where people can text in at 504-260-1870, their thoughts. He said, 25 years later, and we're still at war with terrorism. What has changed? That's a blanket question, but I'd like to hear your answer.

David Schanzer (5:17)

Well, this movement that Bin Laden started, well, he didn't really start, he advanced it, the idea that the West was at war with the Muslim people, and that therefore Muslim people, what he believes, the holy religious Muslim people should strike back at the West, really has not gone very well. It's kind of fizzled. And so, in many respects, our post 9-11 efforts in that regard have been successful. Very few people still believe these ideas, and fewer are willing to die for them now. ISIS is still rampaging in a number of countries around the world.