The relevance for 9/11 is that what 9/11 marked was the beginning of a struggle in which the terrorists come at us and strike us here on our home territory. And it’s a global operation. It doesn’t know national boundaries or national borders.

Cheney frames the September 11 attacks as a strategic turning point: terrorism is no longer something that happens “over there,” but a sustained conflict in which non-state actors can strike inside the United States. By stressing that it is a “global operation” unconstrained by borders, he argues that traditional, nation-centered concepts of defense and deterrence are inadequate. The statement supports a worldview in which security requires transnational intelligence, preemption, and international reach, because the adversary’s networks operate across jurisdictions and exploit open societies. The rhetoric also casts the post‑9/11 era as an ongoing “struggle,” implying long duration and exceptional measures.