20 years on, 9/11-era unity elusive

The headline of the Sept. 12, 2001, front-page editorial in Le Monde (The World) reflected the global solidarity after 9/11.

"Nous sommes tous Américains," it read in French.

"We are all Americans."

It was a sentiment translated in countless countries after Al-Qaida terrorists attacked what they considered symbols of American hegemony 20 years ago. The global emotion was most keenly felt in America, of course, as unity coursed through the body politic like no time since Pearl Harbor.

On a bipartisan basis, many members of Congress congregated on the Capitol steps just hours after the attacks for a moment of silence followed by a spontaneous, rousing rendition of "God Bless America."

Everyday Americans felt, and wanted to reflect, the blessing, too. Flag sales soared. Walmart, in just one example, sold 250,000 on Sept. 12, compared with 10,000 on the same day a year earlier.

Trust in institutions and individuals increased dramatically, too. Even the news media recorded a second-highest level of approval ever in a Pew Research Poll: 69% said news organizations "stand up for America," while 60% said they protect democracy.

All of the rallying around the flag led to unity around military action, too: 82% told Pew that they favored it, a consensus dented only a bit, to 77%, when Pew further asked: "even if it meant thousands of U.S. casualties."

Tragically, the casualties came, as a generation of the nation's finest answered their country's call.

Over 20 years, however, the rally flagged. Unity around and interest in the war in Afghanistan waned among the public and presidents. News media cameras and keyboards turned elsewhere, too. Last year, according to an analysis reported in the Responsible Statecraft website, only five minutes of 14,000-plus minutes of evening network news were about Afghanistan, compared with 940 in 2001 alone (and most of that was in the final five months of the year).

The drawdown in presidential, public and news media attention may have been behind President Joe Biden's original withdrawal date of Sept. 11, 2021, perhaps as a clean conclusion to the 9/11 era. But, as is said at the Pentagon, the enemy gets a vote.

And the Taliban, which went by the apocryphal Afghan adage of "You have the watches, we have the time," waited out Western resolve, then sped up their reconquering of the country, trapping Afghan allies by the thousands — and even some Americans — in Kabul and beyond.

While allies are treaty-bound to answer a future Article 5 call, recreating the 9/11-era unity seems less likely. Especially when our own country can't muster it — even while under attack.

And the country is indeed under attack. The nation is so riven with divisions that the Jan. 6 terror attack on the Capitol came from Americans themselves.

Schisms are also seeded in debates over the pandemic and climate change, just two of the transnational threats that can only be conquered by cohesion.

After an envious early advantage on vaccines, the U.S. has fallen well behind in the rate its citizens take this life- and livelihood-saving measure. In fact, according to an analysis by Morning Consult, the U.S. "has a higher rate of vaccine opposition than any country tracked besides Russia" — the epicenter of the global scourge of disinformation.

Much, but not all, of this split is along political lines, with sharp partisan divides on vaccine and mask mandates and other issues that should be decided by biological, not political, science.

Perhaps the searing experience of COVID and climate change will narrow these gaps. After all, hospitalizations were 160% higher this Labor Day than last year's pre-vaccine Labor Day. And an analysis from the Washington Post last week reported that "nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this year."

There were divisions before 9/11, too, as those who remember the 2000 election's "hanging chads" and "butterfly ballots" recall. But Americans rallied. The same can and must happen to tackle today's challenges.

While the cohesion isn't commensurate to 9/11, a Monday New York Times story headlined "Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees" was encouraging.