Remembering the Commencement of America's Global War on Terror

Republishing an article I wrote three days after Al Queda's catastrophic terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that ended up changing US and world history for the worse

The Pentagon burning after a passenger jet hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists rammed into it. Thankfully the damage has armored walls or else the damage would have been much more extensive. It continued to smoulder for two full weeks as I drove past it on the daily commute to my office located just two miles away in Rosslyn as a 32-year old International Program Manager on the US Army Headquarters staff.

Last month, America commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Two days ago, a senior Israeli leader declared Israel had suffered their own 9-11 with the Hamas terrorist attacks which have killed 700 Israelis thus far and wounded over 2,000 more. These attacks set the United States of America on a fateful course of fighting a Global War on Terror that lasted over two decades that cost the US $6 trillion and over 35,000 lives including military suicides while causing the deaths of nearly a million people in the Middle East.

This war would have been eminently avertable had cooler heads prevailed and had President George W. Bush decided to pull US troops out of Afghanistan in December 2001 with the exception of 5,000 Special Forces troops to continue the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and had he refrained from invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Hussein who had been fighting a war against Iranian terror. The Middle East would have been much more stable and the US and Israel much safer and secure had we accepted Saddam’s offer for Iraq to resume serving as a US proxy in our war against Iranian terrorism. What follows is an article I wrote on September 14, 2001, which was the day after I returned to my Department of the Army office, that I published the following morning, detailing my initial impressions of the attack and the surreal first few days that followed. Interestingly, in the wake of the attacks, I urged Israel to join America’s war on Islamist terrorists by invade and occupy the Gaza Strip which they ended up doing in 2014 and are now on the verge of doing again.

Our Generation's Call to War

September 11, 2001—yet another day which will live in infamy. The twin terrorist attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center and struck the Pentagon killing thousands of Americans represent an attack against America of formerly unimaginable proportions. This was our generation's Pearl Harbor. However, this attack was even worse than Pearl Harbor because sixty years ago, the Japanese struck only military targets, whereas the Islamic terrorists struck at the Twin Towers in such a way as to cause maximum death and destruction among innocent civilians to a degree not seen since the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945. The cries of US citizens calling for vengeance and by our generals calling for massive reprisals to be conducted against the terrorists even if it means that innocents are killed have reached a crescendo.

Though understandable, the calls among our fellow citizens for the US to strike back and kill terrorists and innocents alike are misguided and would reduce us to the level of the cowardly terrorists we aim to destroy. These twin attacks have served to destroy, utterly, the myth of American invulnerability to attack. In truth, America, viewed by most rightly or wrongly as the strongest world power, has more enemies among the councils of nations than friends as we have recently discovered. This attack should be a wakeup call to us all that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

When the terrorists struck, I was attending an Army meeting at Fort Monroe, VA, which is surrounded by water on all sides and was originally established to guard against an attack on the Capital. As the meeting began, we watched news reports of the attack on Twin Towers. The meeting then went forward as planned and when the Program Manager, Brigade Combat Team, a Colonel fresh from conferring with the commanding general, came in and informed us that the Pentagon had been struck and that one of the twin towers had collapsed.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on fire shortly after being hit by passenger jets hjiacked by Al Queda terrorists.

The news got progressively worse from there as additional buildings comprising the World Trade Center began to collapse as well. I told my compatriots what was by now painfully obvious--that this meant that we were now at war. I watched with both awe and anger as I viewed TV clips showing the towers, which are one of the very symbols of American global dominance, collapsing. One of the Army guys with me from TACOM-Warren called his office and found out that the Army wing of the Pentagon had been hit. We feared the worse.

When I first learned of the attack, I immediately looked at my watch to try to see if there was any significance to the day of the attack since terrorist attacks or often carried out on a highly symbolic day. Later on Thursday, I learned that Sept 11 is the anniversary of the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt which paved the way for the Arab states to conclude peace agreements with Israel and live in peaceful coexistence with Israel. No coincidence there.

We were informed that the base was at THREATCON DELTA and that no one would be allowed to leave the base. Military police and other armed guards were seen patrolling the base. Later as the meeting ended, we discovered that we could leave the base. I left messages to my wife that I would hitch a ride to the hotel and that she should wait for me there, but she didn’t get the message and was turned away by security at the gate.

An Arleigh Burke class destroyer similar to the one I saw off the coast of Fort Monroe, VA on September 11, 2001

While we were waiting to leave, I saw two Arleigh Burke class destroyers steaming through Hampton Roads—one heading out to sea, the other heading up the Chesapeake. I grimly speculated that these Aegis warships were being sent to provide needed air defense against further kamikaze attacks by additional terrorist-highjacked passenger aircraft. Military aircraft were to be seen flying above us for the rest of the day both at Fort Monroe and at Norfolk (Langley Air Force base, home to Air Combat Command, was also located nearby). This attack was not without warning as US Army bases tightened up security on September 1st so that no one without a car registered on base could enter—an unprecedented increase in security measures.

I got back to the hotel and remained glued to the TV set for a few hours. We spoke with family members who were concerned since I work near the Pentagon and left word that we were OK. The next day, we headed down the coast where I spotted two aircraft carriers in port at Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world. I then stopped to fulfill a childhood dream of seeing the battleship USS Wisconsin where it is moored in Portsmouth before returning home. Unfortunately, the Navy had ordered this great historic ship, which is still on the Navy rolls and thus subject to possible reactivation, closed to visitors, but I was still able to get some great pictures.

I returned to the office Thursday fearing the worst thinking that some of our headquarters’ staff must have been killed or injured. I was gratified to find out that I was mistaken. However, our headquarters suites were burned to the ground following the attack and our general and Deputy Under Secretary of the Army were forced to move their offices here in Rosslyn. One more interesting tidbit... I was surprised to see my boss, John McDonald, whose office was burnt to the ground, listed as "accounted for" after being reported missing and "presumed dead" on page A-11 of the September 14th edition of the Washington Times on the casualty list section. He is listed as merely a retired Colonel. In fact, he is serving as the Deputy Under Secretary of the Army. No one in my office was aware that he was ever presumed dead or even missing except very briefly immediately following the vile attack on 11 September.

I found out Thursday that the DCSPER, Lieutenant General Maude was killed and according to an insider who works for the Secretary of the Navy, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, the second highest ranking Admiral in the US Navy remains missing and is presumed dead as of Thursday. Sadly, the Army bore the brunt of the casualties. There have been 74 total Army KIA reported out of 126 total Pentagon dead. This is an outrage!

This terrorist attack succeeded beyond all expectations and the perpetrators must be laid low to pay for their insolence in killing our soldiers, our military leaders and several thousand or more innocent American civilians. We are facing not merely one terrorist group, but an entire international network of terrorists and yes, terrorist states including Iran, Taliban controlled Afghanistan, as well as extremist groups in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in the PLO controlled West Bank.

We should work together with the Israelis and other allies in pursuing direct action and active measures against these terrorist states and groups and together with them attack them all simultaneously in one massive attack. With the complicity of Islamic Jihad, now a member of the Yassir Arafat’s ‘unity’ government coalition of the Palestine Authority and the claimed responsibility of Palestinian Front for National Liberation for the attacks, the US should give Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the green light to strike back against the Palestinian terrorists and crush the PLO led unity coalition, which consists of Fatah, Hamas terrorists and Islamic Jihad terrorists. The West Bank and Gaza must be invaded by the Israeli Defense Force for this purpose with the full support of the United States.

Islamic Jihad declared war against the United States in 1998. Now, it is time for the US to “declare war” against terrorists. Although assassination of political leaders is now and has always been immoral, the assassination of terrorist leaders as is being done by the Israelis is not. Terrorists give no mercy and deserve no mercy because they respect no international laws or mores and declare the killing of innocents to be the primary means of achieving their dubious objectives. However, in retaliating against terrorist groups and states we must be careful not to copy the methods and actions of the terrorists by deliberately targeting innocent civilians in Arab countries.

If Bin Laden is responsible, the US should send in troops and tanks through Pakistan and invade Afghanistan. If possible, we should secure the support of President Putin of the Russian Federation in the war against the Taliban. These actions should result in the crushing of the Taliban government and enable the Northern Alliance, supported by both the US and Russia to gain the upper hand.

Al Queda leader Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, who got his start in the CIA-trained and armed Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet Army. He offered to lead an Islamic Jihad against Saddam Hussein in 1990 but his offer was refused by President George HW Bush. He only became anti-American after US military forces overstayed their welcome in the Muslim Holy Land of Saudi Arabia and bombed and sanctioned Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children over the course of a decade without which Al Queda never would have launched these horrific terrorist attacks against us.

Ironically, we might remember that Osama Bin Laden, like his Taliban allies are creations of a Reagan-era State Department and CIA policy which during the 1980s paradoxically supported the most anti-Western groups of mujahideen with the most modern small arms, grenade launchers, and anti-aircraft missiles available to use against the Soviet invaders, while supplying the few viable pro-Western mujahideen groups with decrepit 80-year old Springfield bolt action rifles. The consequence of this of course was that the most virulently anti-Western militant groups gained the upper hand against these few pro-US mujahideen groups, which have all since been disbanded due to our lack of support and our massive funding, training, and arming of their extreme, terrorist, anti-US rivals.

I spoke at length with a fellow coworker at the Department of the Army. She is an Afghan-American who moved here 16 years ago when she was 10. Her uncle was the third ranking leader of one of the few pro-Western mujahideen groups that fought the Soviet invaders in the 1980s. Because of her appearance and her Afghan heritage she was discriminated against and singled out when driving to work late last week. This was understandable, but wrong.

The CIA trained Osama Bin Laden in explosives, bomb making and provided him with millions of dollars, thousands of AK-47 assault rifles and state-of-the-art Stinger missiles as revealed by Sen. Orrin Hatch on Wednesday. During the war against the Soviets, Bin Laden put his millions of CIA supplied US dollars and leadership training to good use and assembled a small army consisting of 18,000-20,000 radical anti-Western mujahideen holy warriors. Today, he is highly regarded and referred to as "an Army commander" by the Taliban government of Afghanistan, which is recognized only by Pakistan and supported by Communist China with whom they, perhaps not coincidentally, signed an economic and trade agreement the same day as the terrorist attacks against the US--a payoff perhaps from our ChiCom friends for carrying out the bombings against the US?

The tragic terrorist attack against the US is part of a worldwide offensive coordinated with the more extreme Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and one other who carried out two or more major suicide bombings against Israeli targets on "Bloody Sunday" on September 9, 2001. In addition, we learned that the Taliban assassinated the leader of the US and Russian backed opposition Northern alliance, which is fighting to overthrow it earlier this week, which explains why Kabul came under fierce rocket attack by Northern Alliance forces on Tuesday night.

Don't be fooled by the expressions of sympathy and support offered up by our enemies like Mohammar Qaddafi in Libya, Khatami in Iran, Yassir Arafat, a veteran terrorist leader himself, and President Jiang of China. These enemy leaders could not be happier for our loss and their people are celebrating and dancing in the streets at the blow, which was struck against "the Great Satan." Of all the nations of the world, only Iraq expressed support for the terrorist attack which is quite understandable since we have been in a one-sided war against Iraq for the last 10 or so years and they have been powerless to strike back or do anything about it whatsoever.

President Bill Clinton whose foolish policies in bombing and sanctioning Iraq from 1993 to 2001 provoked Bin Laden to attack the US homeland mere months after he left office

Ultimately, Bill Clinton and his foolhardy foreign policy is the most to blame for destroying our national security and causing much of the Third Word to hate and despise us, not entirely unjustifiably as imperialist aggressors. We must renounce the immoral policy of past Clinton-led aggressions against Sudan where we destroyed the largest life-saving pharmaceutical plant in North Africa, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Sudanese children suffering from starvation and disease as we should renounce our endless punitive war against Iraq and our aggression against Yugoslavia—countries that never did attack us until after they were first attacked.

The US must admit that its policy of continuous aggression and weekly bombings of Iraq must come to an immediate halt since Iraq has apparently never committed a terrorist attack against the US. It is this very failed policy that has resulted in the extreme hatred against the US that culminated in this attack. This is the price of empire—an empire that the Founding Fathers would never have countenanced. We must return to our foundations as a constitutional republic if we are to avert tragedies like this in the future.

We must bring our troops home from all UN "peacekeeping" missions, which serve no US interest and where they often serve as an occupying army despised by those that they occupy and are at risk of terrorist attack. We must strengthen our security and defenses against terrorist attack, which begins with securing our northern and southern borders with additional border and Army troops, measures which have been largely avoided until now. Let us stand together with our President, George W. Bush, in supporting his efforts to eliminate these terrorists from the face of the earth.

Recent Media Interviews

August 18th—Interview with Jonathan Hollerman on EMP Task Force Channel to discuss the EMP threat from the Sino-Russian alliance and the likely outcome of the war in Ukraine.

August 22nd—Interview with Carlos Carrillo on the Living Hope Esparanza Podcast discussing the chances of whether the war in Ukraine will escalate to World War III with Russia. Here is a link to the interview.

August 25th—Interview with former Polish Sejm Deputy Mateusz Piskorski to discuss the war in Ukraine and how to end it before it escalates to a full-scale war between Russia and NATO.

August 26th—Interview with Jon Twitchell on the Republic Broadcasting Network discussing the death of Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. Here is a link to the interview.

September 8th—Studio Interview on Jason Preston’s “We Are the People podcast focusing on the threat from Communist China and how to win America’s Cold War with them. Here is the link to the interview.

September 14th—Two-hour long presentation to the Utah Citizens for the Constitution and Cache County Conservatives on the history and future of US Foreign & National Security Policy

September 16th—Interview with Dr. Pascal Lottaz on his Neutrality Studies podcast to discuss my new China-Taiwan Compromise Peace Plan. Here is the link to the interview.

September 27th—Appearance on the Committee on the Present Danger-China webinar “Memo to the Senate: Stop the Marxist Take-down of Our Military” discussing the importance of opposing woke cultural Marxist indoctrination of the U.S. Military and opposing the nominations of US military leaders who support it. Here is a link to the interview.

September 28th—Interview with Brannon Howse on his Worldview Weekend Broadcast Network to discuss a number of important topics including the recent Iranian launch of a satellite in orbit at the optimum altitude for a super EMP attack that could destroy the US in minutes. Here is the link to the interview.

October 5th—Interview with Brannon Howse on his Worldview Weekend Broadcast Network to discuss Putin’s recent threats to conduct an above-ground nuclear test in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and nuke the US if it attacks Russia directly. Here is the link.

October 9th—Interview with Nima Rostami Alkhorshid host of the Dialogue Works show to discuss the prospects for peace in Ukraine and Israel and avoiding a larger and more destructive war.

Upcoming Interviews

October 10th—Interview with John Twitchell on his “Talk with John” show on KTALK AM 1640 discussing the wars in Israel and Ukraine and China’s plans to invade Taiwan.

October 11th-Interview with Greg Allison on his podcast to discuss the prospects for escalation up to and including US military intervention in the Israel-Hamas War, whether we could win a tactical or strategic nuclear war with Russia or China and how we can use diplomatic negotiation to ensure America’s national survival.

October 12th-Interview with Chayse Leavitt on his “We Are Here” podcast to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists.

November 3rd—I will be giving a presentation to the Highland Meeting Group about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

© David T. Pyne 2023

David T. Pyne, Esq. is a former U.S. Army combat arms and Headquarters staff officer, who was in charge of armaments cooperation with the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas from 2000-2003, with an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. He currently serves as Deputy Director of National Operations for the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and as a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. He recently co-authored the best-selling new book, “Catastrophe Now--America’s Last Chance to Avoid an EMP Disaster” and his new book “A Nuclear Posture Review for Advanced Technology Weapons” will be published in spring 2024. He also serves as the Editor of “The Real War” newsletter at dpyne.substack.com and as a contributor to “The National Interest”. Here is a link to his interview archive. He may be reached at emptaskforce.ut@gmail.com.