The September 11, 2001 attacks, carried out by Al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden, killed 2,977 people and triggered a sequence of events that shaped geopolitics over the following two decades. The response from the United States and its allies led to military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, with devastating consequences for both nations.
The invasion of Afghanistan, launched in October 2001 with the aim of overthrowing the Taliban regime that hosted Al-Qaeda, became the longest war ever fought by the United States. This conflict dragged on for twenty years until the chaotic American withdrawal in August 2021, which allowed the Taliban to retake power.
Iraq was invaded in 2003 under the George W. Bush administration, with the claim that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction. This invasion completely destabilized the region, contributing to the emergence of the Islamic State and to a bloodbath that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead.
The article suggests that Vladimir Putin may benefit from the West's strategic errors in its response to the attacks, since American attention and military resources were diverted to the Middle East for decades, while Russia was able to consolidate its international position and, more recently, proceed with the invasion of Ukraine. The total bill for these conflicts exceeded several billion dollars and fundamentally changed the established world order.
