Letters from an American - The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of 9/11

Episode Date: September 12, 2026

Yesterday, Trump’s midterm convention had its second night, The audience was sparse, but Trump got the loyalty he demanded from the crowd that showed up, He promised, again, to pay all adult US citizens $5,000 if the Republicans hold control of the House and the Senate, Meanwhile, along with the Strait of Hormuz being under the control of Iranian forces, Iran backed Houthi militants expanded their control of the area around the Bab el-Mandeb strait which has become an alternative route for Saudi Arabian oil to be shipped to the west, Although the Houthis do not control both sides of the strait, they threaten shipping through the passage, Iran appears to be retaliating for Trump’s threats to strangle the Iranian economy by further slowing the transport, Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Trump did not attend the commemoration at Ground Zero, but delivered a speech at the Pentagon, tying the war on Iran to the attacks of 9/11, All four former presidents and first ladies attended the ceremony, As a famous issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, published in November, 2001, explained, the heroes of 9/11 were ordinary people, who were made extraordinary “by acts of compassion, and courage, and terrible sacrifice."Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

September 11th, 2026. Last night was the second night of the Republican Midterm Convention Trump staged to fire up his base. Such a midterm convention is rare. The purpose of national conventions is to pick a president and write a platform. But Trump has turned the Republican Party into a vehicle for his own power and apparently thinks putting himself at the center of the midterms can overcome the headwinds the Republicans are battling. or perhaps with his approval ratings hitting a new low, he just wanted to stand in front of cheering crowds again. The audience at the American Airlines Center in Dallas was sparse,

and according to Kara vote of the Wall Street Journal, many who were there had received their tickets for free from state parties or right-wing groups like Moms for Liberty. But, she wrote, everyone wanted to watch another episode of the Trump show. Although the crowd was small enough that it did not fill the arena, Trump got the absolute loyalty he demanded from those who had turned out. At the event, he led the crowd in an oath.

Please raise your right hand, he shouted. I pledged to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can't even breathe. The crowd chanted dutifully after her. him. That I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do. There's never been bigger cheaters. They don't care. I'm going to go out and I'm going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3rd or we are going to vote before that. The crowd erupted in applause.

Once again, he promised that if the Republicans held control of the House and Senate after the midterms, he would distribute a $5,000 check to all adult U.S. citizens, a plan that would cost more than a trillion dollars, even if it were legal for him to do so, which it is not. But while the Trump show in Dallas was being broadcast to the president's fans, reality was very much on the minds of those watching events in the Middle East. There are two main shipping routes for oil and other products out of the region, and both have strategic choke points. The Strait of Hormuz sits on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula,

where the Persian Gulf empties into the Arabian Sea. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait sits on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula. It pinches the outlet of the Red Sea on its way to the Arabian Sea and from there to the Indian Ocean and world markets. When Trump struck Iran in February 26, Iranian forces took control of the Strait of Hormuz, largely stopping traffic of oil through the outlet. And so, Saudi Arabia, which is the world's largest oil exporter and a close ally of the United States, relied on sending exports via the Red Sea route, passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. It did so by moving oil across the Arabian Peninsula from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea through the East-West oil pipeline, which runs about 750 miles or about 1,200 kilometers,

across Saudi Arabia. It can move about 7 million barrels of crude oil per day and has been sending about 5 million a day since the outbreak of the war on Iran. From there, oil can be loaded onto tankers and shipped down the Red Sea, through the Bab El Mandeb, and onto global markets. Yesterday, Iran-backed Houthi militants swept along the shoreline of the Red Sea toward the Bab al-Mandeb. They captured the seaport and city of Moka, which is about 50 miles or 80 kilometers from the strait from Saudi-backed Yemeni forces. Today, Yemeni government officials told Mohamed Gobari, Imam Abouhasaara, and Yasmin Ghania of Reuters that the Houthis have taken the coastal town of Dubob, which sits on the Yemen mainland at the point of the strait. The sources

said Yemeni forces had also evacuated the island of Perim, which sits about a third of the way between the mainland and the Djibouti shore to the west. Later this afternoon, sources said the Houthis had captured the island. Although the Houthis do not control the Djiboutian side of the strait, they now threaten shipping through the passage. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline has also come under attack. Spencer Kimball of CNBC reports that the Saudi Energy Ministry announced the pipeline had been shut down as a precautionary measure after it had sustained a number of attacks. Kylie Atwood, Katie Bo Lilis, Thomas Bordeaux, and Zachary Cohen of CNN, added that the attacks apparently originated in Iraq, that U.S. officials had told them that pumping stations had been hit, and satellite imagery showed smoke coming from one of them,

and fire damage at another. The price of oil briefly jumped to about $110 a barrel on Friday. Diesel prices moved to $6.6 a gallon, up 60% since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran in February. Trump and his advisors have said they plan to strangle Iran economically through their blockade of Iranian ports. Now it appears Iran is retaliating with a plan to strangle Iran. the U.S. economy by slowing the transport of oil even further. Today is the 25th anniversary of 9-11. The day terrorists from the Al-Qaeda network used four civilian airplanes as weapons against the United States. President Donald J. Trump did not attend the commemoration at Ground Zero,

now the National September 11th Memorial in downtown Manhattan, because, according to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Zolan Cano Youngs, Dana Rubinstein, and Sally Goldenberg, he wanted to deliver a speech, but the event organizers don't allow speeches, focusing on non-partisanship and

honoring the victims. Trump responded to the story with a personal attack on Haberman, calling her Maggot. Instead, Trump went to the Pentagon where he delivered a speech tying his war on Iran to the attack of 9-11, saying, we salute every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror.

And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never have a nuclear weapon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegesith added, we're still sending terrorists where they belong, to hell. And tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong, and we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day. All four living ex-presidents and first ladies, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, Joe and Jill Biden, attended the Ground Zero Commemoration in Manhattan.

There, the victim's names were read, and the ceremony for the first time included a moment of silence for those who died of illnesses related to conditions in the aftermath of the building's collapse. Fifteen years ago, a wonderful student introduced me to the issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 2, No. 36, published on November 14, 2001. Famously, the cover of the issue is entirely black. Written by J. Michael Strzinski, the story takes on the impossible question. How, in a city that hundreds of superheroes call home, were those superheroes powerless to stop the 9-11 attacks? The sane world will always be vulnerable to madmen, Spider-Men answers, when a devil's

devastated couple fleeing from the devastation challenges him because we cannot go where they go to conceive of such things we could not see it coming we could not be here before it happened we could not stop it but we are here now you cannot see us for the dust but we are here you cannot hear us for the cries but we are here But the superhero Spider-Man identified in the chaos did not wear capes. They wore hats that said New York Fire Department and FEMA and police. The true heroes, Spider-Man said, were those ordinary people who ran back into the buildings to rescue others waiting in the dark, who joined together to storm the cockpit of a hijacked airplane

and bring it down to the ground before it could hit the Capitol or White House, and who helped each other to safety or to face the terror. They were ordinary men and women made extraordinary by acts of compassion and courage and terrible sacrifice, and who rejected the self-serving proclamations of holy warriors of every stripe. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.