Nine years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaida on the United States — symbolized by the collapse of the Twin Towers at New York's World Trade Center after two airliners' had crashed into them, and the deaths of some 3,000 people — the world seems adrift without a compass. In the absence of evidence that stable global security and economic systems are in place, a pervasive uneasiness exists.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Bush administration started a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida's stronghold there. But the U.S. is far from achieving the goal of establishing a democratic central government in that country.
There are few signs that the war in Afghanistan will end with success; on the contrary, the war seems to be escalating. More than 2,000 coalition forces soldiers are reported to have been killed since 2001. The U.N. Mission in Afghanistan puts Afghan civilian deaths since 2006 at some 7,000. A private-sector group estimates the annual cost of the war at nearly $100 billion.