The Global War on Terrorism began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It never officially ended.
Instead, the war expanded. U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, while counterterrorism operations spread across the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere. The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in 2021, ending its longest war but not the military campaigns that grew out of the post-9/11 era.
Thousands of U.S. service members have been killed over the past 25 years. Many more returned home with wounds that changed their lives. Overseas, the wars killed and displaced millions of people and reshaped countries across multiple regions.
Now, some of the longest-running American military deployments are changing again. The Trump administration has announced plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq after more than two decades of U.S. operations there.
At the same time, the United States is fighting another war in the Middle East—this time against Iran. The Iran War is not formally part of the Global War on Terrorism, but it is unfolding in a region profoundly shaped by 25 years of post-9/11 warfare and involves many of the same questions about military power, national security, and the human costs borne by service members and their families.
The War Horse was founded a decade ago by an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran to bridge the divide between military and civilian understanding of war. Our reporting continues to investigate how the wars of the post-9/11 era have reshaped the lives of service members, veterans, and military families. Our Reflection essays preserve the experiences of those who fought, served, waited at home, and lived with what came afterward.
Read our coverage below.
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