Never Forget . . .

never forget the (extremely) complex Cold War (et cetera) context of the 9/11 attacks:

• the Soviet-Afghan War (which lasted from December 1979 to February 1989 and had between 850,000–2 million civilian Afghan casualties and caused millions more to flee the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War


• which shaped Osama bin Laden (who grew up in the resistance to the Soviet-Afghan War)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden

• who became a part of Al-Qaeda, a jihadist organization that grew out of the latter part of the Soviet-Afghan War and goes from being regarded as a hero to a terrorist as the Taliban takes control (and a lot of complicated stuff in the 1990s, including the Afghan Civil War).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Civil_War_(1992%E2%80%9396)

and watch a slide show for a pretty good overall wrap-up.  slideshow http://slideplayer.com/slide/10620708/