Twenty-Five Years After 9/11: The Terror Is Past, Yet We’re Losing the War

After nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans were slaughtered on 9/11, that fateful horror now faded in the mists of memory — in a nation whose sense of history reaches back only to the last Truth Social rant — one of the major public debates surrounding our government’s response was: What do we call it?

The Bush administration adopted the “War on Terror,” taking its cues from the transnational progressive consensus that schoolmarms such debates. Some of us who knew better complained, though mutedly.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

Featured Tags

After nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans were slaughtered on 9/11, that fateful horror now faded in the mists of memory — in a nation whose sense of history reaches back only to the last Truth Social rant — one of the major public debates surrounding our government’s response was: What do we call it?

The Bush administration adopted the “War on Terror,” taking its cues from the transnational progressive consensus that schoolmarms such debates. Some of us who knew better complained, though mutedly.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.