Two decades on from 9/11, the US has paid a heavy price for its War on Terror
From the moment the first hijacked Boeing 767 slammed into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, the world was changed forever. By the end of September 11, 2001, 3,000 Americans were dead, and the US was at war.
“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts, and those who harbor them,” President George W. Bush told the nation that evening, promising to “win the war against terrorism.” Three weeks later, American troops invaded Afghanistan, on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, who US intelligence had blamed for the attack by midday on 9/11.
The mission would spiral into a two-decade quagmire, paid for with trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives. 20 years later, a sober evaluation reveals massive expenditure and little gain.
WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
The war in and occupation of Afghanistan concluded just a month shy of the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, and cost the United States more than $2.3 trillion dollars, a figure that doesn’t take into account another half a trillion dollars of interest owed on money borrowed to fight the war, and $233 billion paid caring for the nearly 21,000 veterans wounded in Afghanistan.