It also covers why Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, flew hijacked airliners into New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It describes how American and NATO forces responded by invading Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda and to overthrow the Taliban government. The 20-year Afghan-NATO war which followed would lead to American troops suffering 2,488 dead and 20,722 wounded. This book is one of the first to cover this long war written after the war ended in August 2021, giving it a new perspective. It offers an even-handed coverage of the war based on Taliban, American, and British sources.