America from Pearl Harbor to 9/11

Since its independence in 1776, the United States had not experienced a single hostile shot fired on its own soil. The Atlantic Ocean—or the “Sea of Darkness,” as it was once called by ancient civilizations—served as a vast defensive moat and an impenetrable shield against any invading power. After securing its independence and national unity, the New World moved rapidly toward building advanced military industries. While the world witnessed religious conflicts and colonial wars of expansion, the emerging American giant remained largely detached from those struggles. The first war fought by the U.S. Navy outside American waters was against the Qaramanli government of Tripoli in the early nineteenth century.

The United States entered World War I in 1917 after a period of neutrality, and its intervention marked a turning point in the conflict. German submarines had sunk ships carrying American citizens, while strong commercial relations already linked America with Britain and France. Germany became the primary provocateur that pushed Washington into alliance with London and Paris, especially after the discovery of German communications with Mexico proposing an alliance in exchange for the return of territories previously lost to the United States. America sent one million soldiers equipped with modern military technology to fight alongside British and French forces. The war ended with Germany’s defeat and the signing of the armistice.

The Treaty of Versailles conference was convened under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, who justified America’s entry into the war under the slogan of “making the world safe for democracy.” Although the flames of war had never reached American territory, the United States emerged at the forefront of international politics, and the world began to dream of an era dominated by peace and progress in which wars would disappear. The League of Nations was founded at Wilson’s initiative.

After what became known as the Great War, a climate of optimism and peace spread across the world. Industries expanded, and employment opportunities flourished. Germany, however, collapsed under the burden of harsh reparations. Hunger, poverty, and unemployment spread throughout the country, while the Weimar Republic failed to address the crushing suffering of the population. In Italy, despite being among the victorious powers, the economy deteriorated, unemployment expanded, and public frustration intensified, paving the way for fascism under Benito Mussolini in 1922.

Meanwhile, the United States entered a new era of prosperity and development, accompanied by hopes for lasting world peace. Yet after fascism seized power in Italy, another dictatorship rose in Europe under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933. The American government sympathized with the suffering of the German people and provided technical assistance, while Hitler moved rapidly to expand Germany’s military capabilities.

Hitler adopted the slogan: “Wherever there are German-speaking people, that land belongs to Germany.” He advanced into Czechoslovak territory after the Munich Agreement of 1938, attended by Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, and Mussolini. The agreement approved Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland under what became known as the policy of appeasement. Hitler subsequently annexed Austria through a coerced referendum.

Europe was undergoing a dangerous historical transformation that would redraw the continent’s map and lay the foundations of a new world order. The United States, protected by the Atlantic moat, refrained from intervening deeply in the affairs of other continents in accordance with the neutralist principles associated with the Monroe Doctrine. Yet despite the appeasement of Munich, Hitler’s appetite for territorial expansion remained unsatisfied. He invaded part of Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany and igniting World War II. America initially remained detached from the European catastrophe, while the Soviet Union signed the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany.

Nazi armies rapidly advanced and occupied France within days, leaving Britain to confront Germany alone. British forces withdrew from Dunkirk alongside remnants of the shattered French army across the English Channel. German bombers unleashed devastation upon London and surrounding areas, spreading death, destruction, and hunger across Britain. Defeat seemed to cast its shadow over the British Empire, yet the shrewd statesman Winston Churchill understood that Britain’s survival depended upon American power. Still, the United States calculated that it had no direct stake in Europe’s war.

Then Japanese militarism delivered Britain an unexpected gift when the Japanese army attacked Attack on Pearl Harbor—the first direct attack on American territory. The United States entered the war with full force against the Axis powers. Germany, Japan, and Italy were defeated, and America planted the banner of its dominance over the emerging global order.

On September 11, 2001, civilian airplanes struck the skyscrapers of New York City, killing thousands. It was the second time in modern history that America had been attacked on its own soil and from within. This time, the enemy was neither European nor Asian. The attackers were Muslim extremists living inside the United States, shaped by the Afghan experience under the leadership of Osama bin Laden and the extremist organization al‑Qaeda.

By then, communism had collapsed both ideologically and politically, while Islamist extremism emerged as the new threat confronting the United States. To this day, American security strategy continues to move between the two defining brackets of Attack on Pearl Harbor and September 11 attacks. Iran, in the eyes of some strategists, now appears as a faint and evolving third bracket.

Originally published in Asharq Al-Awsat