“Dear fellow citizens, today our way of life, our freedom is under attack,” for many Americans, these words of President George W. Bush meant that their lives would never be the same. On September 11, 2001, the United States was hit by the deadliest terrorist attack in history: 19 al-Qaeda fighters hijacked four passenger planes, turning them into powerful weapons. Two airliners crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one crashed into the Pentagon building, another crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people died as a result. Lenta.ru figured out how America has changed 15 years after the terrible attack and why its consequences are felt to this day.

“Something is wrong… We are in a sharp decline. I see water, I see houses. We're flying low, very low, too low. Oh God, we're flying too low. Oh God," American Airlines Flight 11 flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney didn't have time to finish her sentence as the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Audio recordings of the last words of passengers doomed to death, photographs of skyscrapers in flames and people jumping out of them shocked American society. Citizens demanded the immediate punishment of those who dared to attack the United States, the authorities wanted the same.

Washington goes to war

The intention to strike a crushing blow against terrorism was expressed by George W. Bush in his very first speech on September 11, 2001. “America, along with its friends, allies, unites with everyone who wants peace and security throughout the earth. Together we will win the war against terrorism,” he assured the Americans. His approval rating soared to 90 percent, and Bush took decisive action.

Within three days, Congress gave the president the authority to use the US military to retaliate against all those who "planned, approved, carried out, or assisted in carrying out" the 9/11 attacks and those who provided safe haven to terrorists.

On September 20, Bush issued an ultimatum to the Afghan authorities, demanding that the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who was hiding on the territory of this state, and all those involved in the attacks be handed over. Kabul asked for proof of bin Laden's guilt, promising to try him in an Islamic court. Evidence was not provided. And the founder of Al-Qaeda himself denied involvement in the attack (Osama admitted that it was he who planned the attack only in 2004).

On October 7, US Air Force aircraft launched the first strikes against Afghan targets, starting the longest war in US history. In November, Kabul was taken, the Taliban were pushed back into the mountains. But this campaign was only partially successful: bin Laden was never captured.

The world community had no doubts about the justification for the invasion of Afghanistan. Bush's decision was supported by many leaders, including Vladimir Putin. But the US president's intention to send troops to Iraq was condemned even by US allies in NATO. Nevertheless, in 2003, American soldiers entered the territory of this state and, almost without resistance, overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. Further events did not develop at all as planned in Washington. Many world leaders, as well as experts, have warned that the removal of Hussein would throw Iraq into chaos and turn it into an Islamist foothold - and that is exactly what happened.

After the whole world was surrounded by footage depicting the abuse of captured Afghans and Iraqis in the prisons of Bagram and Abu Ghraib, the attitude towards the Americans, who had not been particularly loved in the Middle East before, deteriorated catastrophically. Many Muslims began to perceive them as new crusaders, enemies of Islam. The ranks of the jihadists grew rapidly. One of the consequences of Bush Jr.'s reckless decision to attack Iraq is the rise of the most notorious terrorist group in modern times: the Islamic State (IS).

The current American leader, Barack Obama, even during the first election campaign, promised to return military personnel home. But he fulfilled his promise only partially: in July 2016, he was forced to leave almost eight and a half thousand soldiers in Afghanistan to help local security forces. Troops were withdrawn from Iraq, but this allowed IS jihadists to capture almost half of the country.

“There are more suicide attacks against Americans and their allies in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries every month than in the entire period of world history before 2001. Between 1980 and 2003, there were 343 self-blasts worldwide, and at least 10 percent of these attacks were inspired by anti-Americanism. Since 2004, there are already more than two thousand of them - and nine out of ten are directed against the Americans and their allies, ”wrote Robert Pape, an American political scientist and professor at the University of Chicago, in 2010 in Foreign Policy magazine.