Soon after the successful attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in September 2001, the United States faced a diplomatic and military challenge: how to extradite those responsible for the attack from a state with a government largely seen as illegitimate, and certainly not a participant in global governance. Since the Taliban refused to end its harboring of the terrorists responsible for the attacks, the US chose a military operation.
The invasion of Afghanistan went well, and soon toppled the Taliban as a government, but US forces failed to capture Osama bin-Laden, or destroy al-Qaeda as an organization. It also lead in turn to an occupation of Afghanistan and an expensive exercise in nation-building which required, in the name of denying terrorists a safe haven, an ongoing commitment of wealth and military capability. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and the rhetoric used to justify this attack, further militarized global efforts to disrupt terrorist activity, and incorrectly framed this campaign as requiring overwhelming military force.
To be sure, refusal to extradite a mass murderer like bin-Laden justifies the use of military force. But nine years on, US military forces have still not successfully prosecuted this “war” to a conclusion. Instead, a handful of extremists hiding in caves, with no military forces to speak of and few advance weapons, have occupied the most powerful military force in the world for almost a decade. They have bled the US of almost a trillion dollars of its wealth in that time. This commitment of military force and wealth limits US political, economic, and military flexibility, and strengthens the hand of potential enemies by allowing them more freedom to both build a balancing force and act without fear of US reprisal.
By any measure, this is a huge victory for Osama bin-Laden.