Douglas Murray: 9/11 and the War on the Truth

No one with keen senses needs to be reminded that the West is still very much at war with radical Islam. As the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, approaches, U.S. and Israeli armed forces continue to tangle each day with kindred spirits of the ideologues who struck New York and Virginia, while European capitals suffer frequent attacks from radicals within their walls.

Yet there is another war still being waged, one over the origin and meaning of the 9/11 attacks. Lies and conspiracy theories about the events have gained new prominence in recent years, including those proffered by the right, the left, and the Islamic extremists themselves. And a new generation of adults has come of age, many of whom are politically misguided, and all of whom are too young to recall the attacks firsthand. For their sake, and to keep our society morally anchored, those who remember 9/11 must refute the conspiracies and state the truth about the attacks clearly and loudly.

Tucker Carlson recently attempted to raise the curtain on what promises to be a season of distortions. He interviewed former congressman Curt Weldon, who has repeated the popular but debunked claim that Building 7 of the World Trade Center was demolished by the U.S. government in a controlled demolition on the day of the attacks. During the podcast, Weldon claimed that the conspiracy went much further than that. “The real story is, Tucker, did America plan it? And did America just initially come up with the operation through a handful of people, an operation that would kill 10,000 innocent Americans?”

This trend of false theories didn’t begin immediately after the 2001 attacks. It took a while for the sinister and idiotic industry to get going. At first, those opposed to American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq kept their insinuations vague.