Opinion Analysis by Albert Geokgeuzian, Staff Writer

December 21st, 2020

It was a horrific day for the US, when the World Trade Center fell on top of unknowing civilians - after that, the United States of America changed. After that day, the US moved heaven and earth to find any and all threats to national security; the US realized that being separated by an ocean wasn’t enough protection anymore. A new agency was born, Homeland Security, existing departments were given broad powers all in the attempt to stop anything like this from ever happening again.

442 days after the attack, a commission was established, The 9/11 Commission Report, which released its final report on july 22, 2004. In the final report, they highlighted some key factors that led to those attacks, one of those factors was the delayed transition to a new President.

In the presidential race of 2000, there was a dispute that eventually made its way up to the supreme court and decided the presidency. The President wasn’t decided on Election Day, instead it was decided 36 days after, and as the 9/11 commission report put it “this loss of time hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees” which made the income president less prepared to face National Security issues. 

And the rest is history. 

This brings us to today, December 2020, the US election is over, and while the president is known, the lame duck President delayed the beginning of the transition process by 20 days. 

The US’s transition from an old administration into a new one has already been shortened over its history. The near 3 months is necessary for the transition due to the amount of things that need to be changed; emails need to be created, offices to be set up, new individuals to be hired. Over the course of the transition period, the old President meets with the President-Elect and usually gives him a tour, ensuring a smooth transition of power.

The current President has done everything he possibly can to ensure a smooth transition of power can not happen; a decision that could prove to be fateful.

This isn’t the only factor though, at the end of last month, Iran’s top nuclear scientist was killed in an ambush, with Iran vowing retribution. The last 4 years of Trump had made US allies in the Middle East comfortable, and they had plans to grow their reach within the region, with the help of Trump. Even before the November election results were made clear, Trump’s allies in the Middle East were starting to face the reality that Trump might not be in office for much longer and decided to accelerate certain activities they had planned out.

All of this has made it so that the Middle East is rocking, more so than it has in recent years, and with the increase in attacks that we might very well see conducted by US allies who want to get away with things they feel that they won’t be able to under a Biden administration. 

Just as US allies may want to accelerate their actions, we may also see those being attacked become desperate, not enough to attack the US - no one, not even Middle East leaders, are that stupid - but we are bound to see an increase in terrorist activities in the region, and who knows maybe in a years time, we will see an organization try to commit another atrocity like 911, and inevitably fail. 

Even though the US is at its weakest post-911, a country divided, a people divided, a government divided, their military might is scarier than it’s ever been, and it’s enough of a deterrent; 911 will never happen again, not against the US; what will happen is rather a new age of terrorism, an age where missles are replaced with viruses, and troops are replaced with bots.