Editor's note: Danny Haiphong, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an independent journalist and researcher in the United States. He is a contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, and founding member of the No Cold War international campaign. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Each year, the United States commemorates the tragic events of September 11, 2001. U.S. political leaders and media outlets use the occasion to remind Americans of the roughly 3,000 people that were killed in the terrorist attacks in New York and Arlington. Even more perilous has been the politicization of this incident to satisfy the U.S.'s hegemonic aims over the course of the last two decades. 

Few other moments in history encapsulate the historical amnesia inherent in U.S. foreign policy and the ideology of American exceptionalism. The deaths of thousands of Americans is indeed tragic, but so too are the deaths of millions that led up to and followed the events of 9/11.

U.S. interference in West Asia, particularly Afghanistan during its proxy war with the Soviet Union, laid the roots for the destabilization of the region by way of extremism. Instead of reflecting on what some observers have called "blowback" from U.S. interventionism and changing course, U.S. political leaders doubled down on new wars at home and abroad.

In the United States, political leaders on both sides of the aisle cultivated an environment of fear by portraying the United States as under perpetual attack. Arab and Muslim populations came under intense surveillance and were at times arbitrarily detained.

As whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed, widespread surveillance of the digital and online communications of each and every civilian was conducted by intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI. Massive government expenditures were diverted to militarize local police agencies. These policies continue to shape American political life to this day.

More infamously, the events of 9/11 justified an explosion in U.S. interventionism. U.S. political leaders declared a "War on Terror" and set into motion the invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) under the pretext of fighting terrorism. These wars had little to do with terrorism and served instead the larger aim of expanding U.S. hegemony around the world.

According to former NATO commander Wesley Clark, the U.S. administration led by George W. Bush planned on invading seven countries in five years following the 9/11 events: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Sudan. Many of these countries have since been targeted by some form of interference from the United States at the expense of millions of lives and the stability of the region.

In the case of Iraq, the U.S. invaded a sovereign country based upon the fabrication that its government harbored weapons of mass destruction. Estimates of 300,000 to one million Iraqis were killed and many more were injured or impacted by the health consequences of depleted uranium shells and burn pits used by U.S. military forces. U.S. military units and contractors conducted human rights atrocities, most notably the torture of prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib.

The destruction of Iraq's economy only worsened the problem of terrorism, with many observers noting that the formation of newer terrorist groups like ISIL are a direct byproduct of the destabilizing conditions brought about by the war.

In August 2021, the U.S. experienced a major defeat in Afghanistan. The withdrawal of troops in war-torn Afghanistan marked a final blow of sorts to the U.S.'s "War on Terror" foreign policy strategy established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

For the last decade, the U.S. has shifted its sights toward containing China and Russia in the name of "great power competition." This is by no means a reduction in U.S. interventionism. In fact, as the U.S. has expanded its military presence in the Asia-Pacific and Europe to provoke China and Russia, it has maintained military operations and expanded sanctions on key targets such as Iran and Syria in the Middle East.

U.S. foreign policy has thus become an even greater destabilizing force in the 22 years since September 11, 2001. There is a saying that an "old dog can't learn new tricks." However, "old dogs" can learn new tricks with the right leadership.

And if U.S. foreign policy since September 11, 2001, has taught us anything, it is that the U.S. political establishment is not likely to learn the "new trick" of adhering to the principles of international law. This makes the emergence of a truly people-centered political leadership an absolute necessity in the United States, one that is independent of the forces that benefit from unilateralism and perpetual war.

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