Remembering Sept. 11 - a veteran reflects

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (Gray DC) - One of the most profound and lasting impacts of the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001 was the “Global War on Terror.” Originally, the US targeted al-Qaida and the Taliban, but over the months and years, it turned into a 20-plus-year campaign spanning dozens of countries and costing millions of lives.

Mo Vafai was in middle school when he watched the two towers of the World Trade Center fall. It was difficult for any child to process, but Vafai had an added burden.

“My dad kind of rushed over to pick us up early because he was worried that we would get backlash just for being Middle Eastern,” Vafai said.

FBI data shows anti-Muslim hate crimes increased 17-fold in the weeks and months following the attacks. On September 17, 2001, President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, in part to address the rising tide of hate crimes.

Correspondent Molly Martinez asked him whether he or his family experienced any racism? “Oh, yeah, absolutely. I didn’t pay it any mind,” Vafai said.

Driven by a sense of duty, Vafai later enlisted in the U.S. Army, joining 2.5 million others who were deployed to combat zones during the Global War on Terror. His Iranian and Kurdish roots, which once alienated him, became an asset. (Kurdistan is an autonomous region, on the Iraq and Iran border).

“I grew up, I guess with a little more of an understanding of the culture, you know, the way I spoke, a similar language that could translate a lot and talk to a lot of the locals,” Vafai said.

Vafai served two tours in Afghanistan.

“Deployment was the most beautiful, terrible experience both times that I ever had. A lot of Taliban presence, a lot of fighting, I think I showered like six times that deployment,” Vafai said.

According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the global war on terror and its campaigns across Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen cost nearly 4.5 million lives. It displaced 38 million people and cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion. For many of those who fought, the toll hit when they got home.

“That stress of just like, I don’t know if I’m going to die. We keep getting attacked. There’s IEDs everywhere. You know, rockets and mortars like you can get got in so many ways, even if you do everything right so it’s just that constant baseline stress,” Vafai said.

Vafai is a now a police officer with the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland. He has found community with other veterans and holds onto the ethos of service.

“We’re just trying to do right by the situation. And I think that was awesome. And I think that’s how we should always be as humans is constantly trying to do right by whatever circumstance we’re in,” Vafai said.