The year 2025 has come to an end, and along with it, the first quarter of the 21st century. Reflecting on the course of the past 25 years, it is hard to understate the extent to which global events have been shaped by the military excesses of the United States – not that the same cannot be said for the 20th century, too.Shortly after the new century kicked off, the US launched the so-called “global war on terror” under the enlightened guidance of President George W Bush, who offered the professional call to arms following the 9/11 attacks of 2001: “We have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let’s roll.”According to Bush, the US had undertaken to “wage a war to save civilisation itself”, which ultimately entailed pulverising various parts of the world and killing millions of people.On September 11, 2001, I was enrolled as a junior at Columbia University in New York City, the site of the World Trade Center attacks. However, as I was scheduled to study in Italy that fall, I was not in New York at the time but rather in Austin, Texas, where my family then resided.I spent the day at the office where I had been employed for the summer, watching apocalyptic replays of the incoming planes on a large projector screen set up by my colleagues specifically for that purpose.Outside, American flags began to proliferate across every available surface, as the country went ab …
