Why Are We Not Asking Why?

An opinion piece by Co-Founder Manus MacLean

On September 11, 2001, nineteen men turned four commercial airplanes into weapons. Nearly three thousand lives were lost. America was forever changed. But almost twenty-five years later, an uncomfortable question remains: why did the U.S. choose decades of war and surveillance at home, while the countries most tied to the hijackers faced few consequences?

Where the hijackers came from

Here is what the public record shows: fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. None were Afghan, and none were Iraqi. Yet those are the two countries the United States invaded. Wikipedia

Afghanistan: the “logical” first war that became the longest

Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was based in Afghanistan and sheltered by the Taliban. After the Taliban refused to hand him over, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001. What began as a targeted campaign to deny al-Qaeda sanctuary became a 20-year war that ended with the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021. Naval History and Heritage Command | DFAT

Iraq: the war of choice

Iraq did not carry out 9/11. Still, the 2003 invasion proceeded on claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism. The Iraq Survey Group’s “Duelfer Report” found no stockpiles of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. The financial and human costs were enormous, and the strategic consequences still echo today. nsarchive2.gwu.edu | Arms Control Association

Why not Saudi Arabia?

This is the hardest contradiction. A large majority of the hijackers were Saudi, yet Washington did not punish Riyadh. The reason is simple, if uncomfortable: oil and geopolitics. Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter and a long-standing U.S. security partner that regularly buys U.S. weapons. Confronting Riyadh would have risked energy markets and decades of strategy. Reuters | Defense Security Cooperation Agency

The same logic extended to others. The UAE remains a close U.S. military partner, hosting American forces at Al Dhafra Air Base. Egypt continues to receive roughly $1.3 billion annually in U.S. military aid. Relationships, trade, and security interests outweighed any thought of punitive action. FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Who paid the price?

At home, ordinary Americans traded privacy and convenience for security. The USA PATRIOT Act expanded government surveillance authorities and reshaped daily life, from watchlists to airport screening. EPIC | American Library Association

Abroad, civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq lived through invasions, bombings, and occupation. The total price tag of the post-9/11 wars reaches into the trillions, with Brown University’s Costs of War project estimating about $8 trillion across two decades, including future obligations. Brown University

Justice without honesty is theater. Two decades later, theater is not enough.

The questions we still avoid

• Why were Afghanistan and Iraq targeted when none of the hijackers came from those countries? Wikipedia
• Why do Americans accept permanent layers of surveillance and checkpoints while the nations of origin faced no comparable scrutiny? American Library Association
• Why was public anger channeled into wars of choice, instead of a full accounting with allies whose citizens filled most of the attack teams? Wikipedia

Asking these questions does not dishonor the victims. It honors them by insisting on clarity.

Border math check, 2025

“Encounters are down” — so why hire 3,000 more Border Patrol agents? In spring and summer 2025, CBP reported record-low encounters and year-over-year drops of roughly 90 percent or more in several months. At the southwest border, May 2025 encounters fell 93 percent compared with May 2024. U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Congress meanwhile authorized funding to hire thousands of personnel, including 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, as part of a broader enforcement build-out. Agencies say the hires address attrition, port-of-entry staffing, and a wider mission than apprehensions alone. U.S. Department of Homeland Security | Federal News Network

Can “more agents” remove everyone here without status? Pew now estimates about 14 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2023. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations removed about 142,580 people in FY2023 and 271,484 in FY2024. ERO has roughly 6,000 officers. At recent productivity levels, mass removals on the order of millions would require a dramatic expansion of officers, detention space, transportation, courts, and due-process capacity, at immense cost. Strategy matters more than slogans. Pew Research Center | ICE

Bottom line

When fear dictates policy, power often chooses the easiest targets, not the most just ones. If we want to honor the victims of 9/11, we must ask why we fought the wars we fought, why ordinary people bear the costs, and why some allies were shielded. Hard questions lead to better choices.

Call to Action

Support displaced professionals today. Your gift helps skilled newcomers rebuild careers and strengthen America’s workforce. Want to do more? Join our volunteer network or mentor a GRUM through Talent Bridge.