9/11 lesson must not be forgotten

“Twenty years on,” as Cameron Stewart writes in Inquirer on Saturday, “there is still no single day more seared into the memory of Americans and Australians than the terrorist attacks of 9/11.” But with the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan casting an ominous shadow, preparations for this year’s commemoration of the anniversary of the attacks are like none that have preceded it. Startling images of a lethal, US-supplied Black Hawk attack helicopter flying over the city of Kandahar with the Taliban terrorists’ white Shahada flag adorning its side leave no doubt about the enormity of the challenges again confronting the world two decades after the US and its allies, including Australia, successfully invaded Afghanistan.

The Black Hawk is one of 33 supplied to the Afghan National Army, part of a vast arsenal of combat aircraft, armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition inexplicably abandoned and left to the Taliban by the US when it hightailed it out of Afghanistan. Much of the billions of dollars’ worth of equipment is said to have been made unserviceable. But, as the Black Hawk’s victory flight over the Taliban spiritual stronghold of Kandahar showed, much has not. It is being operated by defecting Afghan National Army pilots and others. And the grim reality is the Taliban terrorists and their al-Qa’ida allies now have an armoury they could not have dreamt of 20 years ago.

Few could have contemplated such an outcome amid the devastation of New York’s World Trade Centre. The overwhelming need now, as Joe Biden said amid his bumbling attempts to justify the Kabul debacle, is to learn the lessons of the past but confront the new Taliban reality of 2021. Friday’s first conversation between Mr Biden and Scott Morrison since the chaotic retreat from Kabul was, according to both sides, characterised by warmth and mutual reaffirmation of the importance of the ANZUS alliance on the 70th anniversary of its foundation. But hopefully there was also hard-headed discussion about the far-reaching strategic challenges, particularly for our region, of the fallout from the Taliban’s return to power, once more with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida jihadists, the perpetrators of 9/11, at its side.

As John Howard tells Troy Bramston in Inquirer, the principal objective of the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 was achieved. “The fact that we have not had any more terrorist attacks of that character is pretty significant,” Mr Howard said. Bin Laden was killed, albeit almost 10 years later, in Pakistan. But there can be no escaping the stark reality that 20 years on, the Taliban is back in power and that strong Western leadership is needed, especially in our region, if Afghanistan is to be prevented from again becoming what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson termed last week “an incubator for global terror”. In that context, the affirmation by Mr Biden and Mr Morrison of plans for an in-person summit in Washington this year of the leaders of the four Quad countries (including India and Japan) could hardly be more important.

All the verities that led George W. Bush, with Mr Howard’s strong support, to take military action following the 9/11 atrocities are no less valid today. The prospect of Afghanistan again becoming a base for global jihadist terrorism is real. Nuclear-armed Pakistan, the Taliban’s closest ally and manipulator, is also China’s closest ally in the region. They are ganging up on pro-Western India. Malevolent Iran, fresh from an economic aid deal with China, is also seeking influence in Kabul. So is Russia, working with Iran. Although in a different form, the threat emanating from Afghanistan that the world faced 20 years ago is no less dangerous now. That is even more the case given Hindu nationalist India’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.

As Mr Howard tells Bramston, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq may have ended but the terror risk has not. “It is less likely that we will have another attack like 9/11, but the world is unpredictable,” he warns. “There are always evildoers who want to attack our way of life.” The key lesson the world learned from the horror it witnessed on 9/11 is the importance of strong, decisive and resolute leadership in confronting terrorism. That lesson must not be forgotten as we deal with the reality of the Taliban terrorists’ return to power with al-Qa’ida at their side. Amid the far-reaching consequences of Kabul’s fall, as Mr Howard rightly points out, Australia’s need is for an effective national security apparatus, primary intelligence and reinforced relationships with like-minded countries, not just the US and UK, but in our own region.