ABSTRACT
The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 inaugurated the Global War on Terror which President George W. Bush later, perhaps unwisely, described as a 'crusade'. This was accomplished by hijacking four planes that had full fuel tanks to maximise the damage. After the initial panic, the United States administration began to plan better defensive strategies and its retaliatory measures. Elsewhere, the US undertook a campaign against terrorism by enlisting the assistance of other states and pursuing regimes believed to be aiding Al Qaeda, the two important of which were the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Ba'athists in Iraq. The US attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001 as quickly as the forces – air force and Special Forces – could be put into the field. This invasion was assisted by the cooperation of several surrounding states, including Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The invasion of Iraq took longer for the US to mount than that of Afghanistan.
