Hutzell: 25 years after 9/11, is America safe from terrorism?

I remember the World Trade Center’s North Tower burning.

On the tiny TV in my old Annapolis newsroom, we silently watched black smoke climb above the maw that Al-Qaeda hijackers ripped open when they crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the New York City skyscraper.

Then United 175 flew into the scene and slammed into the South Tower.

American Flight 77 plummeted into the Pentagon 34 minutes later, and United 93 plowed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers rushed the cockpit.

My colleagues and I spent the following weeks documenting lives lost and irrevocably altered in the worst terrorist attack on the United States in history. On that clear September morning, 2,977 people died.

And the world has never been the same.

In the chaos of America on the 25th anniversary of those attacks, I can’t help but ask if 9/11 could happen again.

Are we safe?

“I have to be an optimist in this job, especially with my security clearance, Rick, and the things I know,” U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth told me. “I have to try to strive for optimism here.”

I asked the Annapolis Democrat because of her unique position. She’s the only Maryland member of Congress with direct insight into the risks America currently faces and the goverment’s response to them.

“I’m privy to things that I can’t talk about here that, you know, sometimes scare me,” Elfreth said.

After the former state senator won the 3rd District seat in 2024, I wasn’t surprised when House Democratic leaders assigned her to the Armed Services Committee. She’s never served in uniform, but her father did and her district encompasses the Naval Academy and Fort Meade.

In February this year, America started a pointless war with Iran.

Elfreth, whose record in Annapolis centered on the Chesapeake Bay, was thrust into civilian responsibility for a military seemingly led by a band of fools.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chiseled “Defense” off the Pentagon walls and replaced it with “Department of War.”

They forced out top-ranking women and people of color, launched a summary execution campaign against people suspected of smuggling drugs by sea and fired all the inspectors general.

Trump and Hegseth invaded Venezuela to grab its oil, blocked the promotion of 100 officers who failed a political loyalty test and have so bungled their war with Iran that the tottering theocracy may actually emerge stronger.

Elfreth spent two years learning about all of this and more, sitting through almost every Armed Services Committee hearing, touring the major Maryland military bases and joining high-level congressional trips overseas to grasp policy details and build relationships.

“It’s been drinking out of a fire hose, but in a good way,” she said.

She learned that weaknesses in the military supply system — straddling the globe as no other nation has before — existed before the war. A micromanaging administration that sidelines anyone who raises questions exposed them in the worst way possible.

Missile shortages, lies about accidental civilian deaths, attempts to silence journalists, hidden damages and casualties, aircraft carriers at sea for almost a year — news about the failures continues almost daily.

“I think the overarching story here is that the president was absolutely unprepared to get into this conflict and he is absolutely unprepared to get out of this conflict,” Elfreth said.

On the anniversary of 9/11, when the words sacrifice and strength will be widely repeated, there may be little time given to asking if the Trump administration is keeping us safe.

If management of the war is any indicator, we should all be concerned.

“I’ve lost track of how many briefings I’ve been a part of, closed-door briefings on the war,” Elfreth said. “I often leave those briefings with more questions than I’ve received answers.”

Cold War adventurism in 1980s Russian-occupied Afghanistan and a failure to help stabilize the region after a mujahedeen victory gave rise to Osama bin Laden and his terror network.

The U.S. failed to heed the warnings of Al-Qaeda’s bombings in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Tanzania. We failed to understand the first attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 or the attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

Threats today are not the same. Drones have replaced hijackers, autonomous weapons are the new suicide bombers and social media radicalizes youth instead of jihadist theology schools.

In replacing the word “defense” with “war,” Trump and Hegseth revealed that they don’t recognize their responsibility — defending America.

If what Elfreth can’t share makes her worry, what she saw on her tours should give you confidence.

She saw service members with a passion for their jobs. She saw how National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command staff at Fort Meade fight an asymmetric war with enemies using AI instead of ammonium nitrate bombs.

“Are they tired? Are they stressed?” Elfreth asked. “Yes, but they are also very committed to their missions and very committed to their choices in life and serving the country.”

As I was writing this, I took a break to walk from The Banner newsroom in Baltimore to the 9/11 Memorial of Maryland.

Fused girders from the attack in New York sit atop a marble base engraved with the names of Maryland’s dead. Each year on the anniversary, the sun chases a shadow across notches marking moments in the failure of our defenses.

8:46. 9:03. 9:37. 10:03.

Reggie Love stood nearby, playing his trumpet original “A Prayer for Baltimore” for tips.

“It’s a power spot,” he said. “I love the sound, but people just open themselves here.”

We talked about music and the memorial as cotton-candy clouds floated above. It was a sky that made you feel everything would be OK.

Twenty-five years ago, the East Coast sky was cloudless.

I walked back to work and Love resumed his melancholy solo. I hope that his prayer serves all of us.