When the world changed

The 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 triggered a chain of events that have taken hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people since then. It is time to take stock of how the world has changed. First, the attacks in America were gruesome, and apart from claiming nearly three thousand lives, they shook America and the world. The response from the US was immediate and within weeks a broad coalition of world powers was formed that took upon itself to seek revenge. The responsibility was pinned on the Taliban who were harbouring Osama bin Laden – said to have masterminded the attacks. The invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban regime but also spawned myriad terrorist organisations and outfits that did not take the American revenge lightly. The past 20 years have witnessed repeated terrorist attacks across the world perpetrated by militants and lone wolves from Africa to Australia and New Zealand. Though the US claims that it has achieved its objectives by eliminating the threat of terrorist attacks in America, the result for the rest of the world has been disastrous.

The acrimony that the past 20 years has generated among common people belonging to different faiths against each other is not a small price to pay. The real casualty has been peace and harmony around the world. In a way, 2001 started a new era of bitter politics, super patriotism, terror and tragedy. As the world observed the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks yesterday, there was hardly any recollection of 20 years of a futile war that affected millions of people. In these years the main victim countries and people belonged to Muslim majority areas from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Overall, militancy has increased over the past two decades, which have been extremely hard for the people of these countries. The world now has definitely changed from what it was in 2001 – for the worse.

In America, the victims of the 9/11 tragedy were mourned – as they should have been – but has there been a reckoning of the atrocities that victims in other countries have been suffering since 2001? A whole generation of young people has grown up – from Afghanistan to Yemen – witnessing nothing but death and destruction. Do America and other world powers realise what harm they have done to the world while ostensibly fighting against terrorism? The disproportionate and extremely lethal response that the US inflicted on its target areas was in violation of international law and all ethical considerations. For the world, it is time to reflect on what has happened in the past 20 years. The billions of dollars that have been injected into the war machinery could have been used for development and welfare of the people in the countries that now present a dismal picture. With the Taliban taking over again in Afghanistan, the clock has turned full circle, proving that any foreign invasion in contravention of international law produces more problems than it solves.