The 9/11 attacks were regarded by the United States as justification for trying to re-make the Middle East, but the Saddam Hussein dictatorship was replaced with chaos and the slaughter of civilians; the war was a fiasco.

In response to 9/11, the US-led invasion of Iraq strengthens Iran's influence across the Middle East and sharpens its rivalry with Saudi Arabia throughout a long and bloody proxy war in Yemen. (Final)