On September 11, 2026, 25 years will have passed since the terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people in the United States. That morning, 19 members of Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, two of which struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one hit the Pentagon in Virginia, and the fourth, Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania after the reaction of the passengers and crew. In New York, an installation with 2,977 lights, one for each victim, projected the silhouette of the former Twin Towers over the harbor as a tribute.
After the attacks, the George W. Bush administration declared a new war on terror and the U.S. Congress authorized the use of force. In October 2001, the United States began military operations in Afghanistan against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime. Twenty years later, in August 2021, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, maintaining effective control of the country in 2026. The editorial highlights that a war can end on the military calendar without its consequences ending in History.
A legal wound remains open. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the main architect of the attacks, remains detained in Guantánamo without a final conviction, with a new trial scheduled for June 2028. The article emphasizes that for the families of the victims, 25 years constitute almost a lifetime, with parents who died without knowing a final decision and children who grew up without their parents.
The editorial warns that September 11 cannot be reduced to an exclusively American issue, as its consequences altered alliances, wars, migrations, security policies, and international relations throughout the world, including in Europe and the Middle East. In 2026, millions of young people were born after the attacks and for them the Twin Towers are archive images and not lived memories. The newspaper concludes that remembering September 11 does not mean living trapped in the past, but preventing it from being falsified by forgetting.
