25 years after 9/11, Bin Laden has achieved one of his major goals

The argument presented in this opinion piece cuts to the heart of a two-decade-long national debate. On one side are those who view the post-9/11 military campaigns as a necessary, if imperfect, response to an unprecedented attack—pointing to the fact that no comparable mass-casualty attack has occurred on American soil since 2001, and that al-Qaeda's core leadership was systematically dismantled. On the other side are critics who see the era as a cautionary tale of overreach, citing the rise of ISIS, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a national debt burden that has grown by tens of trillions of dollars. What makes this particular piece provocative is its framing around bin Laden's own words. The al-Qaeda leader famously wrote in a 2004 address that "we spend $1 million while America spends $1 billion" in a deliberate strategy of economic attrition. Whether one accepts the author's conclusion that bin Laden "won" or not, the question of opportunity cost is legitimate and bipartisan in its implications. Hawks and doves alike can ask whether the estimated $8 trillion spent on post-9/11 conflicts represented the wisest allocation of national resources, particularly as infrastructure, healthcare, and education needs went underfunded at home. The article also raises a deeper philosophical issue: how does a nation measure victory in a war against a tactic rather than a state? The "war on terror" was declared against an abstract noun, which made it effectively unbounded in time and geography. That lack of definition may have been its fundamental flaw. The author's service background lends moral weight to the critique—this is not an armchair critic, but a veteran questioning whether the sacrifices made were in service of a winnable objective. Ultimately, this piece will not settle the debate, nor should it. It does, however, perform a valuable function: forcing readers to confront the uncomfortable possibility that the U.S. may have played into an adversary's hands, not through cowardice or weakness, but through an excess of military response. Whether bin Laden's economic goal was truly "achieved" is debatable—the American economy has shown remarkable resilience—but the question itself is worth examining as the nation reflects on the 25th anniversary of that September morning. Source: <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/6045928-war-on-terror-cost-analysis/">The Hill</a>