--- title: Command Post: The 9/11 Effect | TIME description: How did the events of 9/11 alter U.S. National Security? A discussion with New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt, TIME and the Center for a New American Security canonical: https://time.com/video/KgmASIVY/ og:title: Command Post: The 9/11 Effect og:description: How did the events of 9/11 alter U.S. National Security? A discussion with New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt, TIME and the Center for a New American Security og:url: https://time.com/video/KgmASIVY/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KgmASIVY/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Command Post: The 9/11 Effect twitter:description: How did the events of 9/11 alter U.S. National Security? A discussion with New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt, TIME and the Center for a New American Security twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KgmASIVY/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Command Post: The 9/11 Effect > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Command Post: The 9/11 Effect [Watch (HLS stream): Command Post: The 9/11 Effect](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KgmASIVY.m3u8) (5:49)  _Published 2011-09-04. How did the events of 9/11 alter U.S. National Security? A discussion with New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt, TIME and the Center for a New American Security_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:17 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Command Post: How the Military Has Adapted Since 9/11](/video/SwrIDpjs/) ### Command Post: How the Military Has Adapted Since 9/11 [Command Post: The 9/11 Response](/video/42VvEaPL/) ### Command Post: The 9/11 Response [Command Post: How Will Budget Cuts Affect National Security?](/video/KbaWBqJ8/) ### Command Post: How Will Budget Cuts Affect National Security? --- ## Transcript This is Command Post, a series of discussions about military matters, from TIME and the Center for a New American Security. Eric, you've written a lot about this in your new book Counterstrike. I'm wondering if you can just take a step back from the book and tell us, from your perspective and all your reporting, and you folks as well, how has the U. S. and, specifically, U. S. national security changed since 9 / 11? I, I think since 9 / 11, obviously Mark, you've got the public that is much more sensitive to the national security concerns, particularly here in the Northeast. From Washington to New York people are sensitive to the inconveniences of every day life. Whether it's going through an additional metal detector, whether it's flying in an aircraft, or things like that. So people are aware of the, that, the terrorist threat that is out there today in, in more ways certainly than they were before the attacks. I think what's also interesting is to see what's not changed and what hasn't really changed and needs to change in the coming years, is the notion of resilience. That is not just the resilience of infrastructure for instance, I think the government is doing a fairly good job on how if, if the country were to be attacked again, how quickly you could rebuild the country itself. But I'm talking about psychological resilience. This is what the Israelis have, it's what the Brits have. I think when they have an attack there, they make it a, conscientious effort to clean up, get back to the way of life as quickly as possible and deny the terrorists that, kind of, propaganda victory that they often have. Here in the United States, obviously the attacks on 9 / 11, perhaps the attack in Oklahoma City even before that, this country has been spared those kind of attacks. That's the good, that's the good news. The not- so- good news is, of course that this government and I don't think politicians, whether it be the Bush administration or the Obama administration, really hasn't done an effective job of preparing the public at large. For what I believe, and what we write in our book. We believe will be an, an inevitable next attack. And so trying to build up that resilience. And not have an overreaction to the next attack is key, to denying the terrorists that strategic victory that they're seeking. And I, I think Eric's right, that we've seen a change in consciousness on the part of the American people, that, that wars can in fact, hurt us here at home. And that's something that we, we've had the luxury of not having to worry about as a people. But we've also seen really dramatic changes in the US military, so even after the demise of the Soviet Union, the American military was really designed to confront a pure enemy to fight big wars, tank on tank, fighter plane on fighter plane, kind of wars. And in the last decade, since the September 11th attacks, I think we've seen really dramatic changes. In a military that is much more focused on small groups of individuals, on finding those individuals, on building intelligence networks to determine links between them, and to target those individuals far more precisely. Eric in your reporting for your book, to your mind, how quickly was the US Military able to pivot from the Fulda Gap scenario, you know, the Cold War, to going after Al- Qaeda and the Taliban? Did they do it in the blink of an eye, did it take several years? I mean, how quickly did it take for them to get that skill? Yeah, it wasn't quick at all Mark, and maybe that's just natural. The natural inclination after the 9 / 11 attacks was to try and kill your, kill and capture your way to victory using primarily the military and intelligence sources to do this, but it, it took a couple of years. And I think even though there was those in the Pentagon and the, uniformed military who, itself who were arguing against this approach, it really took Rumsfeld in a famous memo that he wrote in late 2003. Asking the question of his top advisers, civilian and military advisers, are we actually creating more militants than we're taking off the battlefield. And this started, I think, at the top levels of the government, a sea change, that we saw particularly through the end of the second Bush administration on into the current Obama administration, of treating what we call in our book a more whole of government approach. Obviously the military intelligence communities are vital to this fight against terrorism. But so are law enforcement communities working more closely with allies. Other parts of the US government you normally wouldn't think of combating terrorism such as the Treasury Department. A key part in choking off the financial networks that terrorists rely on. This took a long time. The whole notion that you could kill and capture, I think took a long time. It also took a long time to better understand how terrorist networks, including Al- Qaeda, really work. I mean, the initial idea was you can just go out there, and if you were able to capture the leader, that would be the end of it, that, that organization would crumble. It, it just reflected the real lack of understanding of not only Al- Qaeda, but how these terrorist networks work. How they feed on the ideology, and how they're resilient enough that they can replace fighters and commanders as we see even to this day. So I think what we've now seen, is the military working with all parts of the US government, working with other allies, to combat networks. This was one of General Stanley McCrystal's real key breakthroughs is the idea that if you can take out and target key elements of that network, the, the logisticians, the, the gun runners, the, those who who, who take care of the targeting. That can be a, a crucial part in at least delaying if not eliminating the attacks all together. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Command Post: The 9/11 Effect","description":"How did the events of 9/11 alter U.S. National Security? 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