25 Years After 9/11, Legacy of Attacks and War on Terror Endures

Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States and its allies are reflecting on the enduring consequences of the deadliest day in modern American history. The attacks, orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed 2,977 people in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania when 19 hijackers commandeered four commercial airplanes. The immediate aftermath saw the United States launch the Global War on Terror, a series of military interventions that a Brown University study estimates led to over 900,000 deaths and cost the U.S. more than $8 trillion. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which followed the attacks, are now widely viewed as strategic failures. The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan, and the conflict in Iraq contributed to the rise of Islamic State. On the day of the attacks, amid the chaos, a separate tragedy unfolded in Brooklyn. Henryk Siwiak, a Polish immigrant, was fatally shot while walking to a new job. He became the only murder victim in New York City on September 11, 2001. The New York Police Department, overwhelmed by the terrorist attacks, could only assign three officers to investigate.