More than two decades of "War on Terror": What has US brought to the region and its own people?

Mohammad Mahdi Abbasi, researcher in the field of American Studies

It's been 23 years since the 9/11 attacks, an event the US used to justify expanding its presence in the West Asia region and launching large-scale military interventions in several countries. In the immediate aftermath, then-US President George W. Bush delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress, broadcast live on television, where he declared: “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there.  It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.” This speech marked the beginning of the US’s so-called “War on Terror” in West Asia. Two years later, following the fall of Saddam Hussein and the US occupation of Iraq, Bush made a bold promise in another speech, saying: “Iraqi democracy will succeed, and that success will send forth the news from Damascus to Tehran that freedom can be the future of every nation. The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.” However, that promise never materialized. Instead of bringing democracy and prosperity, America's two decades of involvement in West Asia left a legacy of destruction and misery.

According to recent study from Brown University, the wars initiated by the US after 9/11 have directly caused the deaths of over 940,000 people. The study also estimates that an additional 3.6 to 3.8 million people have indirectly died as a result of these wars over the past 23 years. In total, more than 4.5 million people have fallen victim to what the US government calls the “War on Terror.” These conflicts have also displaced a staggering 38 million people, leaving millions of innocent civilians with their homes destroyed or reduced to rubble.

In Afghanistan alone, the US military's 20-year campaign resulted in the deaths of 174,000 people, including over 30,000 civilians. A December 2021 report from the New York Times revealed that more than 50,000 US airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan have killed tens of thousands of civilians. One of the most recent examples of US military violence was a drone strike on Afghan civilians during the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, killing 10 civilians, including 7 children — the youngest of whom was just 2 years old.

The world is reeling from newly released images and details from the New Yorker about the US military’s “Haditha Massacre” in Iraq. In 2005, a group of US Marines brutally killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including children, women, and men, in the town of Haditha. At the time, the soldiers took numerous photos documenting their actions, but the US military kept these images hidden from the public until just a few weeks ago.

But the story doesn’t stop there. The American people have also been deeply affected by their government's relentless war efforts. Statistics show that the “War on Terror” has cost the US over $9.5 trillion to date. This means taxpayers in the US are paying, on average, more than $93 million per hour to support these military operations. The human cost continues to mount, even for US service members. The number of active-duty personnel and veterans who have died by suicide after the post-9/11 wars is at least four times higher than those killed in combat.

There have also been numerous reports of widespread sexual assault among US soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the Afghanistan war (2001–2021), an average of 24% of women and 1.9% of men in the US military reported being sexually assaulted.

Now, 23 years after the 9/11 attacks and the onset of US military intervention in the region, it's become clear that the immense financial, military, and human costs were primarily for the benefit of the US military-industrial complex and its corrupt leaders. Presidents like Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden, prioritizing their own agendas over the interests of the American people, have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives under the false guise of fighting terrorism. This sparked widespread anger and hatred among the region's nations, ultimately leading to the US being expelled from West Asia. This was something the Leader of the Islamic Revolution wisely highlighted years ago, saying:

People in the region hate the US. Why do the Americans not understand this? You Americans committed crimes and massacred the people in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Right after the destruction of Saddam, the Americans killed and assassinated perhaps more than a thousand Iraqi scientists with the help of malicious organizations such as Blackwater and the like. They attacked people’s houses. They shove the man of the house on the ground, in the presence of his wife and his children, and trampled on his faces with heavy boots. You have done such things. You Americans bombarded happy wedding caravans in Afghanistan and you did so not just once, twice but tens of times. You bombarded mourning ceremonies as well. You have committed crimes and people hate you! The people of Afghanistan, of Iraq, of Syria and of other parts of the world hate you.