The Turning Point:  War on Terror–Remembering 9/11 Twenty-five Years Later

In this groundbreaking documentary, we witness 9/11 from a myriad of  vantage points.  The Turning Point (2021) interviews  firefighters, survivors of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the aborted attack on  the White House plus all five US presidents (Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden, and footage of Trump).  In addition, there are interviews with the attorneys who were ordered to defend prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, with Al-Qaeda family members, former Al-Qaeda, and civilians who were attacked in Kabul and Iraq.

The story of 9/11 has been told so often it  seems hardly possible to see it with fresh eyes and above all, with deep sadness. Some stories told before The Turning Point, –early in the memory of 9/11– are but half-truths.  The shock and the realization:  that there were no accidents. US intelligence failed or at best, was ignored. 

Each episode can be viewed as a stand-alone focusing on one president’s administration and agencies.  In every scene we see chaos and a tumultuous fear, at figuratively the cellular level,  that transmogrified the US, its belief in its own exceptionalism, its values, and its sense of invulnerability.  The entrance into another era–one which ushers in a very extreme 21st century anxiety–is profound and  unquestionable. “The biggest thing 9/11 did was make America afraid.”  And that fear continues–its own “forever war” of terror.

Episode one is footage of the three attacks, mostly  of the Twin Towers.  The particularly informative, never-before-seen history of why the US became involved in a war of choice, the longest in US history, flashes back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.  Determined to support the Afghan resistance to the Soviets, the US supplied the Afghan army with its most technologically advanced weapons.  This episode is a searing testament to the nightmarish assumptions about a country, its culture, and its capabilities on the part of US intelligence.  Who was the enemy after 9/11? And what would a war look like?  Heart-rending interviews of soldiers, first-responders, and survivors of US attacks as well as those of 9/11 are difficult to listen to.  Eloquent and, at times, with voices breaking, all involved in 9/11 and its aftermath  are stunned, with a deep  incomprehension of what happened and why.

Episode two shows the catastrophe of warfare in Afghanistan.

The middle episode (episode three) is perhaps the core of The Turning Point.   Habeas corpus was eliminated, torture was authorized, laws using unregulated force were instituted. A message was effectively broadcast to Islam across the globe–  anything goes so watch out.  Consequently, the hatred of the US created a fertile ground for the recruitment of ordinary civilians to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  And then the US ordered the invasion of  Iraq and the assassination of Saddam Hussein. No one wanted to throw themselves in front of the military machine, offer resistance, or question the existence of weapons of mass destruction.  The tragic nature of government decisions demonstrates  how radically  US culture and its core values had changed.

“In many respects, what I was hearing was revenge,” says Representative Barbara Lee (CA), who also recounts evacuating the Capitol on September 11 after the Pentagon was struck. “It was anger and revenge.”  Congresswoman Lee was the only one to vote against invading Afghanistan.

There is  little finger pointing, scapegoating, or playing the blame game…with perhaps one exception.  In somewhat puzzling discussions with Alberto Gonzalez, the Bush White House Counsel, and later Attorney General, we see him amiably and casually  defend Gitmo, waterboarding, and the attacks on Afghanistan. President Obama is also seen calmly and resolutely sending drones that will certainly kill or  maim women and children.

Caitlin Langone, the daughter of a police officer who was killed while attempting to rescue the victims trapped in the World Trade Center, in an understatement of her family’s experience:  “It’s important to know the full scope of what led to 9/11, 9/11 itself, the aftermath. It’s important to know the good, the bad, the ugly, the real.” Several military interviews evoke broken souls, unhealed wounds. 

Astonishing, measured and even-handed, The Turning Point is emotionally and politically complex. No viewer can be unmoved. Some may be infuriated, perhaps labeling the series propaganda.  Others will be disheartened by the continued underestimation of war’s impact on those who are innocent and  traumatized. This series will change the understanding of 9/11, and the global reformation of the geopolitics we face.  Unforgettable!  A masterpiece.

Availability:  Netflix