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In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration declared a war on terrorism, with the stated goals of bringing
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished
by means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists and increasing global
surveillance and intelligence sharing. Immediately after the September 11 attacks U.S. officials speculated on possible involvement
by Saddam Hussein; although unfounded, the association contributed to public acceptance for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The
second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and the largest directly connected
to terrorism, was the overthrow of the Taliban rule from Afghanistan, by a U.S.-led coalition. The U.S. was not the only nation
to increase its military readiness, with other notable examples being the Philippines and Indonesia, countries that have their
own internal conflicts with Islamist terrorism.
Because the attacks on the United States were judged to be within the parameters of its charter, NATO declared that Article
5 of the NATO agreement was satisfied on September 12, 2001.
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