9/11 changed the U.S.; Can we change back?

September 6, 2026 / 10:25 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google From journalist and former Carter White House speechwriter James Fallows, thoughts on the legacy of 9/11, twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks:We live through history's turning points, but with no idea which way history will turn.December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor, a date which will live in infamy, marked the end of U.S. isolation, and the beginning of permanent engagement around the world.And September 11, 2001? At the time, it seemed to change everything. But on this 25th anniversary, here is my sense of changes we might have hoped would be permanent, but weren't, and others that future generations may strive to change back.The worst of times can bring out the best in people. "We are all Americans," as the French newspaper Le Monde put it. For the only time in NATO's history, its member countries all voted to come to a stricken ally's defense.In the U.S., people honored our first responders and ordinary brave fellow citizens. President George W. Bush, who had been caught unawares by the attack, went just days later to Washington's Islamic Center. There, he reminded the entire country that while the attackers were Muslim, Islam itself was not the enemy: "In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect," he said.Too much of that unifying sentiment faded too fast. And too little of what lastingly changed in America has received the awareness and scrutiny it deserves. Before 9/11, there was no Department of Homeland Security. No TSA. No ICE. Those functions were carried out more modestly, with less overreach.Before 9/11, there was no Patriot Act, and barely any of the modern structure of the surveillance state. A Flock Safety camera mounted to a light pole is seen in Burbank, California, August 3, 2026. Flock's automated license plate reader cameras, deployed in more than 120,000 locations across 49 states, have drawn criticism from privacy advocates over concerns about mass surveillance and the collection of motorists' location data. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Before 9/11, local police in the U.S. were not kitted out in combat gear as if fighting in Fallujah. That is because before 9/11, there was no war in Iraq (for which 9/11 was the excuse, though no Iraqis were involved), and nothing like the "forever wars" that have followed.Much of it was bipartisan. Most of it was step-by-step. And as we look back, we see a country that survived an attack and avoided a repetition. But it is also a country whose daily life and civic culture those attackers managed to change. The U.S. has had other hinges of history that turned in the wrong direction: In the late 1800s, with the turn against Reconstruction and equal rights after the Civil War; in the 1920s and '30s, when the U.S. closed its doors to the world, even as Nazis and fascists rose to power elsewhere.Let us hope that 25 years from now, the U.S. has reckoned more seriously with who we are, and who we want to become, than we have done so far.Remembering 9/11: Where tragedy left its marksRemembering 9/11: Andrew Card on the moment everything changedRemembering 9/11: Robert De Niro on helping revive Lower Manhattan after September 11Remembering 9/11: When Gander provided safe haven in a time of crisisRemembering 9/11: "Come From Away": Transforming tragedy into art, darkness into light For more info:James Fallows, Breaking the News (Substack) Story produced by Annie Iezzi. Editor: Emanuele Secci. In: 9/11 9/11 changed the U.S.; Can we change back? 03:21 9/11 changed the U.S.; Can we change back? (03:21)