Today, an entire generation is growing up in the great shadow cast by September 11, 2001. They have never known a world untouched by the so-called “War on Terror.” They have never reflected on the freedoms they have lost as a result of this “war,”  because they have never known a world before 9/11.

The events of September 11, 2001, were the catalyst for sweeping changes that crashed over the world and transformed it within an instant. The surveillance state, anti-terror legislation, and endless wars to justify Israeli and American interests are just some of the changes that 9/11 set in motion.

This timeline reviews some of the key events that followed in the wake of 9/11, while also examining the consequences they have on the world today.

2001: The Attacks on the World Trade Center

The official 9/11 narrative claims that 19 hijackers, under the direction of a man in a cave on the other side of the planet, managed to carry out the most sophisticated attack on the most protected airspace in the world. They allegedly bypassed the American security apparatus – which operates with the largest military budget in history – while coordinating all of this from a cave in Afghanistan.

These supposedly “devout” Muslim men, who reportedly enjoyed drinking alcohol, snorting cocaine, and getting lap dances from strippers in Las Vegas, managed to collapse three skyscrapers with two planes in New York, while another pilot in Washington allegedly flew a Boeing 757 directly into the Pentagon’s accounting department – where staff were working on the mysterious $2.3 trillion that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared “missing” from the Pentagon’s accounts.

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden supposedly lived in a secret hideout in Afghanistan yet somehow managed to evade the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the U.S. military and special forces. He was then said to be hiding in Tora Bora – and somehow escaped once again. Later, he lived for years in Abbottabad, playing hide-and-seek with the most advanced intelligence network in history, while releasing video after video, until he was finally killed in a daring Navy SEAL raid in 2011. His body was allegedly buried at sea after being given a “proper Islamic burial ritual.” After all, one must respect the dead, right?

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Torture Prisons

After the attacks of September 11, a series of emergency measures were introduced, the consequences of which are still felt today.

On September 17, 2001, President Bush granted the CIA new powers to capture and detain anyone the agency considered a “continuing, serious threat.” These powers had no expiration date. As long as the so-called “terror threat” persists, these powers remain in effect. This directive triggered what later became known as the CIA “black sites” – a global network of secret prisons and interrogation centers where detainees were held indefinitely.

The Global “War on Terror”

On September 20, 2001, George W. Bush delivered his famous address to Congress, outlining what became known as the Bush Doctrine: an open-ended war on “terror,” granting the administration (and future U.S. governments) carte blanche to attack any target in the world deemed to be a threat – even preemptively, before any threat had materialized.

This doctrine grew out of the so-called “neocon” movement within the Republican Party, which advocated using America’s superpower status to unilaterally force regime change around the globe. Nations that did not comply and serve U.S. or Israeli interests were to be coerced into regime change, either voluntarily or by force (read: military intervention).

This doctrine led to regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan (prior to the Taliban’s return to power), Syria, Libya, Yemen (prior to the Houthi takeover), and, quite possibly, Iran in the near future.

In this infamous speech, Bush addressed the nations of the world directly, declaring that they faced a choice: either obey U.S. demands and submit to American and Israeli interests; or be declared allies of terrorism:

“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorist.”

— George W. Bush

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The Invasion of Afghanistan

On October 2, 2001, NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty for the first time in history, declaring the 9/11 attacks an attack on the entire alliance.

Al-Qaeda was accused of being behind the attacks, and because it was a foreign entity outside NATO, the alliance argued it had the right to collectively invade Afghanistan.

On October 7, 2001, the U.S. and the U.K. launched airstrikes in Afghanistan, followed shortly by ground forces. The U.S. withdrew its troops in August 2021, and the Taliban regained power on August 15, 2021.

The Patriot Act

On October 25, 2001, George W. Bush signed the so-called “Patriot Act.” This legislation dramatically expanded the government’s ability to monitor citizens and restrict their right to privacy.

American whistleblower Edward Snowden later revealed that this law allowed the U.S. government to collect billions of data points from phones and the internet. Much of this was done under secret legislation, hidden from the public, meaning the government could not be held accountable.

The law also introduced new financial regulations to make tracking bank transactions easier, created new definitions for terrorism, and massively expanded the state’s surveillance capabilities.

Subsequent investigations have confirmed Snowden’s claims, showing that the NSA engaged in mass collection of phone data from U.S. citizens.

“Axis of Evil”

On January 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address after 9/11, Bush warned that “the war on terror is only just beginning.” The U.S. deployed troops to the Philippines, Somalia, and elsewhere, and he declared that Washington would attack regimes that refused to submit to the new world order, wherever they might be. He specifically named Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as forming an “Axis of Evil.”

In August 2002, administration lawyers circulated memos justifying “enhanced interrogation methods,” including waterboarding, stress positions, and prolonged sleep deprivation, arguing that such methods did not constitute torture.

The government also claimed that so-called terrorists were not protected by the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war.

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The Lie About Weapons of Mass Destruction

On September 12, 2002, George W. Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraq’s government. He accused Saddam Hussein’s regime of violating a series of UN Security Council resolutions, including Iraq’s obligation to destroy all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and to allow weapons inspectors unrestricted access to all facilities. He also accused Iraq of supporting Al-Qaeda, harboring its members, and developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could fall into the hands of “terrorists.” He concluded by saying the U.S. was willing to act alone if necessary.

On October 16, Congress approved war with Iraq. After weeks of lobbying the UN Security Council – including China, France, and Russia – the U.S. secured a resolution allowing Iraq one last chance to prove it had no WMDs. Saddam allowed inspections, and on November 27, UN and IAEA inspectors returned to Iraq but found no evidence of WMDs or any ongoing weapons programs.

On February 3, 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the UN in an attempt to convince member states that Iraq possessed WMDs and had ties to Al-Qaeda. Investigations following the Iraq invasion revealed that the so-called “evidence” presented by the U.S. government was fabricated and outright false.

Iraq’s “Liberation” Begins

After failing to gain full international backing for the war, the Bush administration launched Operation Iraqi “Freedom” on March 20, 2003.

The invasion, led primarily by U.S. and British forces, quickly defeated the Iraqi army. This marked the beginning of a years-long occupation that ended only when Iraqi resistance forces succeeded in pushing the U.S. out in 2011.

The consequences for Iraq were devastating. The country was plunged into a “divide and conquer” strategy orchestrated by U.S. military planners, sowing sectarian division and sparking a civil war. This eventually gave rise to the so-called “Islamic State,” also known as ISIS or Daesh.

It is estimated that nearly half a million Iraqis lost their lives.

2025: A World Transformed

Today, 24 years after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the world is forever changed. There is a world before 9/11, and there is a world after 9/11 – and it will never be the same.

The endless War on Terror, which justifies perpetual wars and Western intervention in other nations, has become a permanent precedent.

9/11 and the neoconservative political ideology promoted by George Bush and his hawks in the White House laid the groundwork for the regime changes we have since witnessed in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

This policy – and this pivotal event – is why Palestinians suffer today. 9/11 justified the demonization and dehumanization of Muslims worldwide, paving the way for the genocide in Gaza to unfold without Western outrage or even a second thought.

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