Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a Post-9/11 show, Pre-9/11

So my latest Netflix binge, which I just finished with my roommates, was Star Trek: Deep Space, a show I hadn't watched since the '90s.  But here's the thing though: it doesn't feel like a '90s show!  Certain shows are just a product of their time you know; X-Files, the TGIF line-up, Friends, these shows are utter time-capsules from the '90s, and have aged rather hilariously and sadly.  DS9, however, I've come to realize, was far ahead of its time.  In many ways, it was a post-9/11 show pre-9/11!  Consider:

• The show features men and women having to compromise their ideals in the face of existential threats--in classic episodes like "In The Pale Moonlight," "Inter Arma Silent Leges," "Extreme Measures," or even "Broken Link," the characters argue about whether it is worth selling out one's principles to save civilization, or if civilization is even worth saving if they sell out their principles.  In other words, DS9 was discussing the ethical ramifications of Gitmo, the PATRIOT ACT, "Advanced Interrogation," and Drone strikes nearly a decade before any of those actually existed.
• The tone of the show is very post-9/11--a creeping dread and darkness pervades this show in a manner that is very common in TV dramas nowadays (Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, etc), but was jarringly incongruous with the sunnier shows of the '90s, back when we were far more sure of ourselves. 
• Serialization--most TV shows nowadays are very serialized, in a manner that was uncommon during the status-quo-happy '90s, back when we assumed America would always remain on top.  The serialized DS9 was built for the Netflix age, a solid decade before Netflix existed.
• The law of unintended consequences is on constant display on this show--throughout the series, characters try to do the right thing, yet sometimes doing the right thing inadvertently results in something worse farther down the line.  It's as though DS9 anticipated the deep irony of how the "freedom fighters" we trained against the Russians in the '80s, would become our sworn enemies in the aughts; or how the "liberating" invasion of Iraq would undermine America more thoroughly than any terrorist attack ever could.  Speaking of which...
• Terrorism--throughout DS9, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and the lines of which is which, and which should really have our sympathy, are never clear.
• Religious fanaticism--between the Bajorans and the Founders, religious faith on DS9 is treated not with the glib dismissal of TNG or TOS, but as a serious and real influence upon how people behave, both for good and evil.
• Questioning American Exceptionalism--the Federation is the idealized U.S.-stand-in within the Star Trek universe; at least, it was until DS9, wherein the characters often have to face the fact that their Federation can sometimes be colonizing, hypocritical, short-sighted, sanctimonious, self-satisfied, and far less benevolent than it thinks it is.  Just as in America post-9/11, it took a protracted war to get us to consider how we're not as good or powerful as we think we are.
• The horror of war--war is never portrayed as glorious or patriotic in DS9, but as an inglorious slog, a destructive, degrading, messy, scarring, oppressive tedium to be suffered through even in the best of circumstances, a lesson that America would re-learn throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
• After all the horror, things are still pretty good--the Federation does win the war end of DS9.  And the Federation is also, for all its revealed faults, still a far more ideal and utopic place to live in than any society now extant.  The characters are all decent folks after all, just trying to do the best they can, given the circumstances.  Have you seen the meme "First World Problems?"  For everything clearly wrong with America today, it is still one of the safest, freest places on Earth.  There are still as many decent people today as there ever were, anywhere.

And the brilliance of this show is, if it had aired in the aughts, then it would've been either hailed or dismissed as some Battlestar Gallactica-esque reflection of our deepest seated post-9/11 anxieties.  But it's a '90s show; unlike most derivative sci-fi, DS9 wasn't reflecting the times, it was looking ahead!  Star Trek: DS9 anticipated our current situation!  You know what this means, don't you: 9/11 didn't change the world, it only revealed it.  The fault-lines that shake us today were already present in the '90s, we just weren't paying attention.  The '90s were not so sunny as we remember, the creeping dread only erupted on 9/11, not formed.  Star Trek: DS9 was a post-9/11 show in a pre-9/11 world, showing us not as we are, but where we were going.