In the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, Jesus remarks that a good shepherd will leave 99 sheep to go looking for one that is lost. FDNY chaplain Father Mychal Judge spent most of his life living out some version of that — with alcoholics, AIDS patients, and firefighters on their worst nights.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, at 68 years old, Fr. Mychal did it one last time. He left his friary and walked straight toward the fire that everyone else in the city was running from.

‘I’m not finished here.’

Inside the North Tower lobby, Fr. Mychal stayed close to the men he had come for. He moved through falling debris and the bodies of people who had jumped, stopping again and again to kneel, to anoint, to bless, and to pray for whoever was in front of him — the dying and the already dead, treated with the same unhurried attention.

Someone offered him a way out, a seat with the officials heading somewhere safer. He said no. “I’m not finished here.”

Witnesses remembered his lips moving without stopping, the same prayer said over and over into the noise: “Jesus, please end this. God, please end this.”

He was reportedly still on his knees, mid-rite, when the South Tower gave way at 9:59 a.m. The collapse sent a wave of debris through the North Tower lobby, killing him where he knelt before the building he was standing in had even begun to fall.

A cop, two firefighters, an emergency worker, and a Wall Street employee who had wandered over to help found Fr. Mychal first, feeling through a smoke-choked lobby until someone tripped over his body in the dark.

A photographer caught the moment he was recovered — ash-covered men cradling a priest between them, his body carried like something too precious to be dropped.

RELATED: The little chapel that didn’t lose a single window on 9/11

KATHY WILLENS/AP POOL/AFP/Getty Images

It didn’t take long for people to name what they were looking at in that image. They started calling it “the American Pietà” — the same posture as the Virgin Mother cradling her Son.

Because his was the first body to reach the medical examiner that day, the paperwork simply read: Victim 0001. Of the nearly 3,000 people who died that morning, his name went down first — the shepherd, oddly, arriving ahead of the flock.

One firefighter later said as much himself. It felt fitting that Fr. Mychal would go first, as if he had simply done what he always did — walked ahead, so that whoever came next wouldn’t be walking into the dark alone.

Fr. Mychal was carried the rest of the way to St. Peter’s Church and laid before the altar.

The street where his friary still stands now carries his name. And every September, firefighters and family retrace his final walk — from the church where he served, to the firehouse nearest where he fell — covering once a year on foot the same distance he covered without once looking back.

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​Blaze news, Collapse, Debris, Dying, Fallen heroes, Family, Firefighter, Lost, Politics, September 11 

St. Paul’s Chapel sits less than 100 yards from where the World Trade Center once stood, right at the edge of what became known as Ground Zero. More than two billion pounds of debris hit the ground on September 11, 2001, hard enough that seismographs 21 miles away picked up the shaking.

The 235-year-old chapel should have gone down with everything around it. It didn’t. When workers finally got close enough to check, days later, they found the building standing untouched in the middle of a flattened city block — not one window broken.

Some things come through the worst of it still standing, still able to hold whoever needs holding.

Opened in 1766, St. Paul’s is the oldest church building in Manhattan — and its survival came down to one tree. A roughly 100-year-old sycamore on the corner of the property took the blow that should have hit the wall behind it.

What happened next is the part worth remembering.

Within days, St. Paul’s opened its doors to the recovery workers laboring across the street — and didn’t close them again for nearly nine months. The choir loft became a dormitory, lined with beds for firefighters and construction crews too spent to make the trip home.

George Washington’s own 18th-century pew became a podiatrist’s chair, where blistered, torn-open feet got patched after 16 hours on twisted rubble. Chiropractors worked the aisles.

Someone played “Amazing Grace” on the grand piano every day, string quartets played through the noise, and long tables stayed stacked with fruit, candy, whatever anyone needed to keep going.

RELATED: When a nation rejects God, it gets Islam: Steve Deace reacts to Michigan’s primary earthquake

Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

The recovery efforts at the chapel did not come from the top down. It took a village — a rotating cast of thousands who simply decided this was theirs to do. More than 15,000 volunteers came through: musicians, clergy, podiatrists, lawyers, soccer moms, and others whose shifts had already ended somewhere else.

They just kept showing up until, together, they’d served more than half a million meals, according to the Rev. Lyndon Harris, the chapel’s priest, who ran the relief effort from the first week.

One construction worker who’d lost his sister-in-law that day said he’d cursed God when, almost by accident, he found the chapel door — and found strangers already inside, making sure he didn’t have to carry his pain alone.

Outside, the wrought-iron fence filled with flags, photographs of the missing, and children’s drawings, stretching a full city block: a wall of grief in front of a building that had somehow come through untouched.

Even the one part of the chapel that was severely wounded on 9/11 found its way back. The organ took in two and a half gallons of dust through its 1,680 pipes and sat silent for years, money too tight to fix it. It wasn’t playable again until 2009 — in time for Easter Sunday.

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​Easter, World trade center, September 11, New york city, Politics 

Vice President JD Vance celebrated the American family and our national “birthright” as he and President Donald Trump brought the 2026 Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas to a close Thursday night.

Vance focused his speech on the American family, touting the Trump administration’s pro-family policies and attacking Democrat positions on health care. “I want to live in a country where doctors answer to parents and to the Hippocratic oath, not to a bunch of far-left bureaucrats,” he said.

‘He loves our country. He wants a great future for our generation and for future generations.’

Vance went on to highlight America’s history and the American way of life, referring to it as our “shared birthright.” He also noted the importance of the Trump administration’s border enforcement and deportation accomplishments to help maintain that way of life.

“This country was handed down to us,” Vance said.

“We received this birthright, and we are going to fight for it by electing Republicans this November.”

Vance not only claimed that Democrats reject this birthright, but he also had a clear message for those radicals who threaten it and the traditional family: “Stay the hell away from our kids!”

Trump spoke as well, highlighting his administration’s accomplishments: “Less than two years ago, the American people gave us a mandate to save America, and in 19 months, I have delivered on every promise I have made.”

Trump also urged Republicans to “pretend” that he is up for re-election again when they go out to vote this November.

“I’m not on the ticket. You got to pretend. … You got to do me the biggest favor you’ve ever done me,” Trump said with his signature sense of humor.

“You got to pretend I’m on the ticket. I’m on the ticket — I’m on the ticket!”

“If the Democrats get in, they’ll destroy everything we’ve built,” Trump said.

“So on … November 3, you’ve got to do me a favor. You got to get out and vote, and you’re going to pretend I’m on the ballot.”

RELATED: ‘Do me the biggest favor’: President Trump keeps the crowd laughing as he makes the case for Republicans

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

After the speeches, opera singer Christopher Macchio ended the night with renditions of “America the Beautiful,” “Nessun Dorma,” and “All I Ask of You.”

The crowd was explosive throughout the night, frequently erupting into applause and patriotic chants.

Holly Ham, an attendee from Houston, told Blaze News she was thoroughly impressed with the vice president’s speech: “JD is eloquent. His speech was great. … He loves our country. He wants a great future for our generation and for future generations.”

Ham said she thought the convention did its job as far as motivating Republican voters. “This election is going to be important. … We are getting the vote out. Everyone here is going to vote, vote, vote!”

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​Dallas, Jd vance, Midterm convention, Trump administration, Donald trump, Politics 

Four shootings near the University of Cincinnati in the first two weeks of the semester finally got City Hall’s attention.

Mayor Aftab Pureval (D) announced increased police patrols, street closures, additional lighting, and other emergency measures around campus. “This is not OK,” the mayor said.

Meanwhile, parents are left watching a multimillion-dollar administrative machine move with all the urgency of a DMV line at 4:55 p.m.

No kidding.

Whose jurisdiction?

Every semester, thousands of parents hand over tuition checks to the University of Cincinnati under the naive assumption that municipal leaders and campus officials hold a basic interest in keeping their children safe.

Off campus, along Clifton and Short Vine, students have instead encountered shootings and persistent violence. Cincinnati has long carried the unflattering nickname “Cincinasty.” These days, the joke is getting a little too close to reality.

The problem is not that nobody knows violence exists. It’s that responsibility becomes considerably murkier once students step beyond the campus boundary.

UC itself notes that the Cincinnati Police Department “maintains primary jurisdiction and responsibility” for off-campus incidents, even though university police patrol some surrounding neighborhoods and the two departments work together. UC also describes safety as a “shared responsibility” and reminds students that “living in a vibrant urban city also requires personal accountability.”

Fair enough. But parents might reasonably ask how much accountability belongs to the institutions collecting their tuition and taxes.

‘People need to wake up’

Frustrated by the persistent violence near campus housing, Lisa Klancher, a communications veteran whose daughter attends UC, launched a petition demanding direct accountability from both local officials and university leadership.

“People need to wake up, but more importantly, this pressure has to be sustained,” Klancher tells me. “I know leaders are all sitting there saying, ‘Let them vent; parents will soon have a new distraction, and this will go away.’”

But Klancher remains focused on the public safety crisis surrounding the campus. For her, this is less a political debate than a quite literal matter of life and death.

Cincinnati hardly lacks anti-violence programs. In 2023, the city convened representatives from more than 20 organizations running youth violence-reduction programs, and its current ACT for Cincy strategy encompasses everything from mental health services and youth programs to gun access initiatives and policing reforms. The paperwork is impressive; the results less so.

As readers well beyond Cincinnati know, bureaucratic institutions possess an infinite capacity to substitute process for action.

Klancher agrees: “Institutional programs spend so much time and money, they feel they need to roll out one big solution. Those rarely satisfy everyone who has to approve it, and the program never gets launched.”

In other words, process has entirely replaced progress. Meanwhile, parents are left watching a multimillion-dollar administrative machine move with all the urgency of a DMV line at 4:55 p.m.

RELATED: This top school says AI has shredded college — and every university is next

Prostock-Studio/Getty Images

Municipal neglect

The decay surrounding the campus is undeniable, yet entirely avoidable. It’s the predictable outcome of years of municipal neglect. In 2023, neighborhood leaders even proposed clearing homeless encampments from nearby Burnet Woods after residents complained they no longer felt safe there. Meanwhile, commercial real estate booms along the nearby I-71 corridor while the district surrounding the state’s flagship university continues to struggle.

Klancher points to nearby Columbus as an example of a different approach. Its Non-Fatal Shooting Team assigns an entire group of investigators to non-fatal shootings rather than just two detectives. According to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (D), the program’s pilot ended in 2025 with a 94% solve rate, compared with 53% citywide.

“Columbus is using existing laws strategically to remove violent offenders without disrupting the broader community,” Klancher explains. “The city created a nimble, private-sector model that allows for quick assessment and pivoting. Bureaucracy must learn that it is OK to start small, analyze the data, and adapt quickly to what works.”

Beyond barricades

Cincinnati’s response has been more episodic. After a major shooting, barricades go up, cruiser lights flash, and additional patrols arrive. The question is whether that urgency will survive after the headlines fade.

For Klancher, families shouldn’t have to wait for the next shooting to find out.

“No one cares that you worked hard, sacrificed, took on debt,” Klancher says. “You only matter when you get hurt in the crossfire; then leadership and lawyers can create a law in your name.”

City officials and university leaders should step out of their offices and walk Short Vine at midnight on Friday — or on Monday or Tuesday. Frankly, any night of the week works. True public safety requires an honest acknowledgment of reality. It also requires administrative accountability.

As Klancher notes, “We teach young people to respect leadership and their community, but respect is earned through preparation, presence, and action. Students should want to love the community they chose, not count the days until they can leave it.”

​City hall, Columbus, Crime, Higher education, Law enforcement, Public safety crisis, University of cincinnati, Lifestyle 

On September 11, 2001, Josephine Harris was a 59-year-old bookkeeper for the Port Authority, working on the 73rd floor of the North Tower. She’d been hit by a car a few months earlier and was still getting around on a leg brace.

After American Airlines Flight 11 hit the tower at 8:46 a.m., she made it more than 50 floors down on her own before her legs gave out.

They started calling her their ‘guardian angel’ and meant it literally.

Ladder Company 6, led by Captain Jay Jonas, had gone up to help with the evacuation. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed, and Jonas ordered his men back down. Around the 19th floor, they found Harris — barely able to stand. Instead of continuing past her, they stopped, picked her up, and carried her the rest of the way.

It was slow going, too slow, in a way that would end up mattering more than anyone there could have known. By the fourth floor, Harris couldn’t take another step, and the group stopped with her.

That’s where they still were, 29 minutes later, when the North Tower came down at 10:28 a.m. — with Jonas’ men still carrying a woman who couldn’t carry herself.

The small enclosed shaft they were standing in, Stairwell B, held while everything around it fell. Jonas later described the noise and motion in almost violent detail — floors slamming into floors, steel twisting, the ground bucking beneath them — and then, after roughly 12 seconds, it stopped.

“The tower came down like a peeling banana,” Jonas told USA Today, according to Fox News, “and it peeled around us.”

Port Authority K-9 Officer David Lim, also trapped there, came to in the silence afterward and started coughing. “My first thought in my head is, ‘Well, dead men don’t cough, so that means I’m still alive,'” he said.

Fourteen people walked away from that spot — firefighters, a police officer, and Josephine Harris — with no life-threatening injuries, buried under rubble that had flattened almost everything else.

RELATED: The little chapel that didn’t lose a single window on 9/11

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

They were the only survivors found in any stairwell in the North Tower that day. Every other stairwell came down with everyone in it.

The leading theory for why they survived points to location: Stairwell B ran through the geographic center of the tower’s core, shielded on all sides by the building itself.

The firefighters never forgot what Harris’ slow pace had actually done for them. Had she been able to walk normally, the math is simple and unbearable — they’d have reached the lobby well before 10:28, with nothing left standing to shelter them.

They started calling her their “guardian angel” and meant it literally: A woman who couldn’t save herself ended up being the reason an entire company made it home.

Jonas and his men stayed close to Harris for the rest of her life. She died a decade later, in 2011, still in touch with the men she’d unknowingly saved by needing them to slow down.

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​Port authority, September 11, Survivors, Politics 

Although transgenderism has been on the retreat since its peak in 2023, it is still quite alive in blue states like Oregon. Last month, a Portland mother, Allison Roberts, filed a lawsuit against Portland Public Schools after receiving a trespass order because of her protests against gender ideology in her children’s elementary school.

According to reports, Roberts took issue with an assignment given to her 11-year-old that asked students to identify and discuss their gender identity with classmates and teachers, as well as the school’s decision to repaint its traditional rainbow Pride flag into an “Intersex-Inclusive Progress” variant. Roberts alleges that parents received no advance notice of the assignment or opportunity to opt their children out.

Schools exist to educate children, not to claim authority over their understanding of sex, identity, and morality.

When she tried to meet with the school’s principal, she got an unsatisfactory response. She then wrote an open letter opposing the school’s policies and passed it out to other parents outside the school. A clash with another parent followed, and eventually the district issued a one-year trespass order barring Roberts from school property.

It goes without saying that the school principal handled the matter badly. In my experience teaching in public schools, parents with concerns like Roberts’ are heard and usually accommodated. The principal could have asked the teacher to stop giving the assignment or simply allowed Roberts’ children to complete an alternative. Respectfully listening to her complaints about the flags would probably have de-escalated the situation.

Instead, the school treated Roberts like some deranged religious kook, dismissed her concerns, invoked the law, and idiotically made itself the center of a culture war.

On the bright side, the story presents an opportunity to reject transgenderism in schools by confronting the main arguments used to defend it.

The first and most obvious claim is that parents like Roberts are trying to impose their religion on others by rejecting transgender indoctrination. This has it completely backward: Portland Public Schools are imposing their religion by requiring children to discuss gender identity and surrounding them with symbols endorsing a particular understanding of sex and gender. This is the endorsement of a particular set of beliefs and values — what many people would recognize as functioning much like a religion.

RELATED: When government breaks the law, can you even sue?

DNY59/Getty Images

Of course, the usual follow-up is that leftist ideologies are not exclusive religions bound to dogmas and theories but inclusive agendas based on science and democratic values.

Again, Roberts’ case shows the problem with that framing. Some transgender activists describe disagreement with their ideology as a form of genocide. Claims that biological sex can be overridden by subjective gender identity remain fiercely contested, yet dissenters are routinely treated as though they reject established scientific fact. The result is an ideology that frequently marginalizes Christians and others who understand sex as fixed and binary.

Nevertheless, transgender advocates maintain that it is critical to welcome and affirm transgender children. Transgender young people report depression and anxiety at substantially higher rates than their peers, and advocates argue that acceptance is therefore essential.

This is where the argument becomes harder, not easier.

For those who have personally interacted with young people suffering from gender dysphoria, it is one thing to consider transgenderism in the abstract; it is another to watch a young person take cross-sex hormones and permanently alter a healthy body in pursuit of an identity that may itself change.

Young women can develop facial hair, lowered voices, and other permanent changes from testosterone. Young men who take estrogen undergo their own profound physical changes. Whatever one thinks about such treatments for adults, there is nothing trivial about medicalizing confused or distressed children.

And none of this belongs in a K-12 curriculum presented as though there were no serious moral, medical, or scientific dispute.

There have also been several highly publicized mass shootings committed by transgender perpetrators. Those cases do not demonstrate that transgender people as a class are dangerous, and pretending otherwise would be bad reasoning. They do, however, make especially foolish the insistence that every concern about gender ideology must arise from irrational hatred.

As Roberts’ experience shows, merely requesting the removal of such materials and imagery at a public school may not be enough. Restoring sanity requires removing transgender propaganda from classrooms and replacing ideological instruction with a moral framework that actually helps children flourish.

In practice, this would mean looking in part to my home state of Texas. Besides restricting certain LGBTQ teaching materials and accommodations for transgender identities, Texas lawmakers have banned students from using cell phones and other personal communication devices during the school day.

RELATED: Parents, not bureaucrats, should call the shots

The phone ban gets children off screens and forces them to interact with the people around them. They cannot as easily retreat into online worlds where anxieties and pathologies can be cultivated in isolation. They have to engage with reality.

Texas lawmakers have also required public school classrooms to post the Ten Commandments. The law has faced constitutional challenges, although the Fifth Circuit in April vacated an earlier preliminary injunction against it. Other litigation continues.

Unlike transgender flags, which signal allegiance to a contested secular ideology, the Ten Commandments clearly articulate a moral code centered on reverence, honesty, respect for others, and self-control. These are useful guidelines for any classroom.

Despite their roots in Judeo-Christian Scripture, many of the principles contained in the Ten Commandments can be understood and practiced by anyone. They provide a moral framework ordered toward human flourishing and are far more useful to children than slogans about gender identity.

At least Texas is moving in the opposite direction from Portland.

Allison Roberts should not have been treated as a threat merely for objecting to what her child was being taught. Her lawsuit will determine whether Portland Public Schools crossed a legal line. The larger argument belongs to every parent: Schools exist to educate children, not to claim authority over their understanding of sex, identity, and morality.

​Biological sex, Cell phones, Gender ideology, Mass shootings, Portland, Public schools, Religion, Teachers, Texas, Transgenderism, Opinion & analysis 

Apple’s iPhone is known for top-tier privacy and security, and while recent events have us questioning its impervious reputation, iOS is still a better option for the security-conscious than Android, where Google openly siphons user data to improve its products. One way Apple protects users is through powerful end-to-end encryption for iCloud files, iMessages, and more, but this cutting-edge tech isn’t as effective if the big bad wolf is already inside the henhouse. A new warning reveals that some iPhones are being targeted by spyware. Are you one of the victims on the list?

In mid-August, Apple published a new article on its support site stating that iPhones can now receive notification alerts when a device is targeted by spyware from an outside source, such as a cybercriminal, mercenary group, or foreign government.

Spyware can target iPhones, and there are serious consequences if it happens to you.

Around the same time, Apple issued the first batch of alerts to users living in 110 countries worldwide. The company didn’t provide much more information, aside from the fact that targets in 150 countries have been notified via its spyware alert system since its inception in 2021, with an unprecedented number occurring in recent weeks.

As for who is most at risk, Apple warns that bad actors are most likely to target very specific groups of people, including journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats. Still, even if you aren’t in any of these categories, it’s important to know that spyware can target iPhones, and there are serious consequences if it happens to you.

Apple Threat Notification/Apple Support

What a mercenary can do with iPhone spyware

While iPhone used to be labeled as virtually unhackable, that hasn’t actually been the case for a very long time, if ever. Just like Android or Windows, iPhones running on iOS can contract terrible viruses and malware that could wreak havoc on the personal data inside.

When it comes to spyware, this type of malware is particularly dangerous because it usually hides in the shadows, waiting quietly without any obvious ransom requests or fanfare. Instead, it siphons personal data like a leech, taking bits at a time without the user knowing they’re under attack. It could steal anything — browsing history, passwords, credit card information, classified documents, clipboard contents, etc. Your entire digital life is at risk.

RELATED: The latest iPhone security threat has a nasty fix

Moor Studio/Getty Images

What to do if you receive a spyware alert on iPhone

If you receive a spyware notification from Apple, it will appear in two separate places. First, it’ll pop up directly on the lock screen as an Apple Threat Notification where you’re most likely to notice it the moment it’s available. Second, it’ll appear at the top of the page in the Settings app with a red dot to catch your attention.

Based on all information available, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll ever receive this alert. However, if you do, there are some immediate steps you should take to lock down your phone and protect your data.

First, you should enable Lockdown Mode in the Settings app. This feature limits your phone’s functionality to make it harder for cybercriminals to steal your data. It’s important to note that Lockdown Mode should only be used in serious situations, as it will severely impact your device’s day-to-day capabilities. To activate Lockdown Mode, open the Settings app. Scroll down and select Privacy & Security. Scroll down again to the very bottom of the page and tap on Lockdown Mode. Lastly, tap to enable Lockdown Mode, confirm your decision on the next page, and you’re protected.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Lockdown Mode on iOS 26.6.1

Next, Apple recommends that you contact an expert for additional security support and guidance. It lists several options, some of which have ties to woke progressive ideologies, like Access Now, so I would refrain from following its advice wholesale. Instead, you should file a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center to make it aware of the targeted strike.

You might also wish to partner with an identity theft protection agency to help mitigate any damages caused by personal data loss. If you’re an active target, the instigator is likely to continue to search for new ways to reach your data, so you’ll need an ally in the fight to keep you, your devices, and your information secure.

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​Apple, Ios, Iphone, Malware, Privacy, Security, Spyware, Viruses, Tech 

James Talarico has been dominating the Texas Senate conversation, but Ken Paxton is finally fighting back — and he’s using Talarico’s own words against him.

In a new AI-generated campaign ad, Paxton strings together several radical comments Talarico has actually made, and it has the AI Talarico read a fictional monologue about a “nonbinary” God, six genders, a “radical feminist” Jesus, and America not being a Christian nation.

“In the beginning, God was nonbinary, and he wasn’t a Christian. And God said, ‘Let there be six genders.’ And there were. Then God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son, who was a radical feminist and never asked people to worship Him,” the ad shows the AI Talarico saying.

“Look, I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity,” he continues.

“James Talarico, wrong for Texas,” a voice-over says.

“America is not a Christian nation,” Talarico says, before the voice-over finished, “And wrong for America too.”

“A little AI action there,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“But here’s the thing. Those are all things that James Talarico has actually said. So they’ll scream about that, ‘You made an AI, you made him say things from artificial intelligence,’” he continues, “And he’s said all of those things.”

“Just not right after each other,” he adds.

The ad, Gray notes, shows “what we’re up against with James Talarico.”

“Is that who you want representing Texas?” he asks.

“But he’s very smooth. I mean the guy, he is a good campaigner, and he’s the only one we’re seeing in this race until very recent, like two minutes ago,” he adds, “We’re finally seeing Ken Paxton fighting back a little bit.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

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​Artificial intelligence, Campaign ad, James talarico, Ken paxton, Pat gray, Texas senate, Blazetv show 

Twenty-five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is worth saying something my fellow Americans might not like.

Osama bin Laden is winning.

Bin Laden could not defeat the United States militarily. He needed us to exhaust ourselves and change ourselves.

Not that he won. He didn’t. American special operators found him in Pakistan in 2011, shot him dead, and dumped his body into the Arabian Sea — probably. Al-Qaeda never destroyed the United States, overthrew the Saudi monarchy, conquered Jerusalem, or established the worldwide caliphate bin Laden imagined.

But bin Laden had a strategy. And a disturbing amount of it worked.

He wanted American forces out of Saudi Arabia. The large post-Gulf War presence ended in 2003, although the United States never fully left.

He wanted to draw the United States into long, expensive wars in the Muslim world. We obliged him beyond his wildest expectations.

In 2004, bin Laden spoke explicitly of “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.” He did not bankrupt us. Not yet.

The national debt stood at about $5.8 trillion in 2001. Today it is roughly $40.6 trillion. Afghanistan and Iraq did not cause all of that. Not remotely. But the post-9/11 wars consumed enormous sums, and the debt accumulated over the same quarter-century now constrains American choices at home and abroad. By 2009 alone, Congress had provided more than $800 billion to the Pentagon for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and related operations.

We occupied Afghanistan for 20 years, invaded Iraq, and finally fled Kabul while the Taliban returned to power.

Through all of this, we preserved the serene conviction that the United States remained a colossus bestriding the earth.

My old teacher Angelo Codevilla saw the danger almost immediately. Writing after 9/11, Codevilla offered a pitiless standard for victory: You win when you force the enemy to change how he lives without changing how you live.

By that standard, Osama bin Laden is winning. He’s dead. We changed.

We built a permanent security superstate. We accepted surveillance, watch lists, airport humiliations, emergency powers, and a sprawling homeland security bureaucracy as ordinary features of American life.

We spent trillions fighting wars whose political objectives we never clearly defined. What political result did we expect from occupying Afghanistan for two decades? What political result did we expect from Iraq?

What did victory look like?

Our “statesmen” never really answered those questions, especially the last one.

Instead, we confused military superiority with political wisdom and the ability to destroy things with the ability to produce outcomes we wanted.

Exploiting our misapprehension was central to bin Laden’s strategy.

RELATED: Outrage erupts at apparent insult from Mamdani during 9/11 ceremony

Robert Giroux/Getty Images

He could not defeat the United States militarily. He needed us to exhaust ourselves and change ourselves. We did both.

Then something remarkable happened after he was dead.

In November 2023, young Americans began passing around bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” on TikTok. Some said reading it changed how they understood American foreign policy. Many of the people encountering his propaganda had little or no memory of 9/11.

They were not joining al-Qaeda. But some read the justification offered by the man responsible for murdering nearly 3,000 Americans and thought: Maybe he had a point.

Sure, Bin Laden was dead. His argument had outlived him.

America today is also considerably more Muslim than the America he attacked. Muslims remain a small minority — about 1.6% of the population — but their cultural and political presence is far more significant than it was in 2001.

None of that is sinister in itself — necessarily. Most American Muslims are not bin Ladenists. They don’t have to be. Why flatten skyscrapers when you can get your co-religionist elected mayor of the very place where the towers fell? Or gradually take over a city?

And although the idea of religious liberty is not something we should readily throw away, religion must conform to our constitutional norms and small-“r” republican form of government. With citizenship comes certain obligations.

George Washington put it beautifully in his 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport. The United States, he wrote, “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

But Washington continued: The government “requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

RELATED: Media tries to protect Antifa with tired al-Qaeda talking points

CNN/Getty Images

There are two halves to the bargain. The republic protects you. You owe something to the republic.

We have become very good at talking about the first proposition and almost embarrassed by the second. That’s a deadly mistake. Sharia law, strictly speaking, is incompatible with our Constitution.

Nations can lose without being conquered. They can dissipate power. They can mistake reputation for strength. They can confuse yesterday’s dominance with today’s reality.

And they can change themselves so thoroughly in response to an enemy that they forget what victory was supposed to preserve.

Bin Laden is dead. Codevilla’s question remains: Who changed whom?

Our enemies did not reorganize themselves around us. We reorganized ourselves around them.

That’s why, a quarter-century after 9/11 and 15 years after bin Laden’s death, the answer is so terrible: He’s winning the long war, and we’re losing.

​Opinion & analysis, Osama bin laden, 9/11 anniversary, War on terror, Freedom, George washington, Islam, Immigration, Angelo codevilla, First amendment, Religious liberty, Victory