September 11 led US to launch 25 years of ‘failed war at enormous cost’

September 10, 2026 — 5:30pm

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On September 11, 2001, Peter Hartcher was living outside Washington, DC. It was a regular Tuesday for the then-foreign correspondent, who had sent his children to school as normal and planned to spend the day reporting on then-prime minister John Howard’s visit to the US capital.

Howard had travelled from Australia for what was meant to be an uneventful commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty – until two planes struck New York’s World Trade Centre towers, and one struck the Pentagon, in what remains the deadliest act of terrorism in modern history.

“We didn’t know whether this was a one-off attack or the beginning of a war launched by a foreign adversary that was going to escalate in the days following,” Hartcher reflects to host Samantha Selinger-Morris on The Morning Edition podcast 25 years on.

“There were hours where we just knew absolutely nothing really about what was going on ... that moment of uncertainty, that pregnant moment was perhaps the most terrifying of all.”

On Howard’s flight home, aboard Air Force Two, he decided to invoke the treaty for the first – and only – time, ultimately committing Australian troops to a........

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