The 9/11 attack was tragic and deserved a response.
However, an argument can be made that Al-Qaeda succeeded in its objective by drawing Uncle Sam into a massive retaliation.
Consider:
A report from Brown University estimates that Washington has spent nearly $5 trillion since Sept. 11, 2001 on the wars launched under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
 The report lists over one million Iraqi lives lost to the US invasion of 2003 anto the more than 12 million refugees driven from the four countries laid waste by US wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria. Those refugees are fleeing to Europe and North America.
It says there were nearly 7,000 US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 52,000 officially listed as wounded in combat and the untold hundreds of thousands more suffering from traumatic brain injuries.
 Another report issued by Harvard University conservatively estimated that the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has amounted to $75,000 for every American household.