Miller: In 1989, the world was in a great shifting of powers.
Tomsen: In afghanistan, the afghan mujahideen,
Supported by the united states,
Defeated the soviet army.
Baker: The wall came down and we did not anticipate
The total implosion of the soviet union.
Narrator: In 1989, the collapse of the iron curtain
Coupled with the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan
Signaled the decline of communism and the
Waning days of the cold war.
Soufan: Those mujahideen who went to afghanistan realized
'wow! We did not only defeat the soviets who invaded afghanistan,
We destroyed the soviet empire.'
Narrator: But the devastation left behind stoked a new global conflict.
A conflict the us was not prepared for.
Soufan: We said, okay mission accomplished, see you later, you sort it out.
Petraeus: Gradually extremism grows and grows.
Narrator: Today the west is constantly engaged with
Violent factions around the world.
Aggression that events 30 years ago helped fuel.
Soufan: What we did back in 1989 in afghanistan,
Resulted in what we saw in downtown manhattan on 9/11.
Narrator: And no one knows when this war will end.
Petraeus: This is not a fight that we're going to win in a decade
Much less in a few years.
The threat of islamic extremists is generational.
(theme music plays).
Soldier: White truck, 3:00 johnson.
We're gonna push it, we're gonna push it out of the way.
(explosion).
Get out! Get out! Get out!
Narrator: For many years now the war on terror has raged.
Soldier: But he's ok.
Soldier: Fine.
Not a scratch on him, lucky son-of-a-gun.
Narrator: But the enemy isn't an evil empire or a rogue state.
This is a fight against islamic extremists,
A complex group of combatants
With a collective goal of changing the world order.
Jennings: The u.S. Military suffered one of the worst
Battlefield tragedies in several years.
Reporter (over tv): Three u.S. Helicopters were shot down
By rocket-propelled grenades.
Clinton: Early this morning, bombs exploded outside
Two of our american embassies in africa.
Curry: The navy is losing hope of finding anymore survivors
From Thursday's attack on the u.S.S. Cole.
Couric: We have a breaking news story to tell you about.
Apparently a plane has just crashed into the world trade center.
Narrator: Less than a month after 9/11, the united states
And its allies responded with force.
The military action would begin in afghanistan,
Soldier: Re-load it!
Narrator: The place where many of the seeds of the 9/11 attack had been planted.
Not in 2001, but in 1989.
Tomsen: My official title was 'special envoy to the afghan resistance.'
That gave me responsibility for working with the
Afghan mujahideen, and also with pakistan.
1989 was a key turning point in the war against terror.
Narrator: A decade before 1989, the soviets were looking to preserve
A communist government in afghanistan, and protect
Their interests in the country from western nations.
Tomsen: On christmas eve, 1979,
That's when the soviets invaded afghanistan.
Narrator: The invasion set the stage for one of the final showdowns of the cold war,
When the pentagon threw its support behind the opposition,
A coalition of muslim fighters known as the mujahideen.
Tomsen: The cia and the pakistani intelligence organization,
Known by the acronym isi, had an enormous covert weapons program.
It amounted to about $200 million to help the afghan mujahideen defeat
The communist regime.
Baker: The world as I had known it changed beginning in 1989.
We had been supporting the mujahideen along with our allies saudi arabia,
To the point of supplying them with surface to air missiles,
Some of which came back to bite us later on
When they fell into the hands of the taliban.
Tomsen: The cia didn't they look at the big picture.
They did not have a geo-strategic long-term vision.
In northern pakistan the isi established an infrastructure of thousands of mosques, and
Training camps for recruits to cross the border and take on the soviet army.
Man: They wanted to make us communist, thank god we are muslims.
We are following god's path, we do not want communism in afghanistan.
Narrator: The mujahideen would outlast the red army.
In 1989, the soviets withdrew.
It was a win for the afghans and seemingly the us.
Tomsen: Milt bearden was the cia station chief in pakistan.
He sent back a cable to washington declaring in big letters 'we won.'
And it was a big victory,
Distributing the weapons to the mujahideen groups and defeating the soviets.
Narrator: But with the russians out of the picture,
Afghanistan became fertile ground for chaos.
Soufan: In 1989, after the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan,
We had a significant moment that shaped
The modern islamic extremist movement today.
You start having rebellions all over the eastern bloc.
Even the berlin wall fell.
Death of communism.
That was an indication that there is a new geopolitical reality.
Those mujahideen who went to afghanistan realized
'wow! We did not only defeat the soviets who invaded afghanistan,
We destroyed the soviet empire.'
Baker: It was a positive thing for the united states when the soviets had to
Give up their adventure in afghanistan,
But it maybe should have also been a lesson to us
About going in there when we did and the aftermath of 9/11.
Soufan: I think after the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan,
We made a strategic mistake as the united states.
We said 'ok, mission accomplished, see you later, you sort it out.'
We did not get involved to assist and help
The afghani people figure out their future.
We turned our back on them.
So you have so many different factions among the mujahideen,
And now they don't have a common cause,
And they don't have a sense of direction where they are going,
So they start fighting with each other.
Narrator: That lawlessness that followed russia's departure would have
Profound consequences.
Some of the well-armed mujahideen, including
Those who traveled to afghanistan to enlist in the fight
Decided to join a new radical group called al-qaeda.
But back then the us didn't think of terrorist groups as existential threats,
True enemies were thought to be nation-states.
Soufan: A lot of people didn't pay attention to them.
The intelligence community ignored them, because they thought,
'those are our allies!
Those mujahideen worked with us to defeat the soviets!'
Unfortunately, in their mind, they had something else totally going.
So they start planning, they start conspiring,
They start forming a covert network,
Not only in the united states but also in other places around the world.
Osama bin laden by now is in sudan.
He's funding all these networks.
Tomsen: Know thy enemy.
In 1989 we did not know our enemy.
I knew nothing about osama bin laden, I knew nothing about al-qaeda.
I thought that history was going in the right direction.
So I had no idea about what would eventually unravel.
Soufan: We start looking into their network, after the first world trade center bombing.
Reporter (over tv): In new york city beneath the twin towers of the world trade
Center, a massive explosion in an underground parking garage.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that it was a bomb.
Narrator: The world trade center bombing in 1993 put the us on notice.
Extremists in the middle east were angry about the foreign presence in their region and
They were taking the fight to american soil.
The 1993 bombers, who had ties to the mujahideen were convicted.
But another mujahideen leader was on the rise and under the radar.
Reporter: He lives in a cave atop a range of mountains in afghanistan.
From there he controls a web of financial, logistical and strategic assistance
To sunni islamic groups, engaged in what they consider a jihad, or a holy war.
His name is osama bin laden, the most dangerous man you've never heard of.
Miller: Bin laden had fallen in love with his own image.
He was in business to be at war.
At abc news at the time we had developed some information that bin laden was likely to
Be charged, federal charges, arranging, sponsoring, supporting the bombing
Of the world trade center, that killed 6 and injured hundreds.
Ironic now.
That was a very interesting story.
It sounded like the kind of thing that we needed to sound a warning about.
Because in 1998 you could have stopped 100 people on the street and said,
"hey! What do you think of osama bin laden?"
And 100 of them would have said, "I don't know who that is."
Interviewing osama bin laden,
I knew going in that this was going to be a dangerous assignment.
But if bin laden was going to that much trouble to get us there to talk to us,
He probably had something to say that he wanted to get out.
Bin laden: We believe that the biggest thieves in the world are americans,
And the biggest terrorists on earth are the americans.
The only way for us to fend off these assaults is by using similar means.
We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and
Civilians, they're all targets in this fatwa.
Narrator: Saudi-born bin laden wanted the us out of the middle east
And threatened more violence if his demands were not met.
Bin laden: You will leave when the bodies of american soldiers and civilians are
Sent in the wooden boxes and coffins.
Miller: Bin laden had his own agenda, 'I declare war on the united states.
This will be bigger than our war with the russians.
I predict a black day for america, after which nothing will be the same.'
Well that sounded... It sounded ridiculous.
It may be easy to make such threats, a man on a hilltop backed by a few hundred
Mujahideen soldiers declaring war on the united states.
But it's not a conventional war that he's threatening.
Bin laden is talking about terrorism.
It was a guy on top a mountain with a network of caves,
And a couple of trucks and, you know, maybe 12 of 1300 men.
How was he going to declare war on a superpower a million miles away across an ocean?
9/11 just wasn't in our frame of reference.
(screaming, crying).
He attacked the united states of america on a single day at multiple locations,
Taking 3000 lives, using plane tickets and box cutters.
We hadn't thought our way through that when he first declared war.
Narrator: After 9/11, the connections became clear.
The first world trade center bombing in 1993.
The black hawk choppers shot down in mogadishu, also in '93.
The embassies in '98.
And the uss cole in 2000.
America was facing an intensifying threat,
One from growing hate-filled terrorist networks whose history reached back to
The soviet withdrawal from afghanistan in 1989.
Petraeus: The 9/11 attacks crystallized everything.
This establishes clearly, the new threat to the united states and indeed to the
Western world and our partners in the gulf as well.
And gradually extremism grows and grows as a true significant security threat.
Bush: Good afternoon.
On my orders, the united states military has begun strikes against al-qaeda
Terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in afghanistan.
Petraeus: We went to afghanistan because that's where the 9/11 attacks were
Planned, that's where the initial training of the attackers was conducted
When osama bin laden had a sanctuary in eastern afghanistan,
Under the rule of the taliban at that time.
Narrator: But it wasn't the first time the us went after osama bin laden.
It had tried three years earlier.
Clinton: Today I ordered our armed forces to strike
At the network of radical groups affiliated with and
Funded by osama bin laden.
Petraeus: We actually launched cruise missiles into afghanistan trying to kill
Osama bin laden but missed him unfortunately by several hours.
Narrator: After September 11th, the hope was that he would be found in the
American invasion in afghanistan.
But for years bin laden evaded justice.
He remained hidden in the sanctuaries on the border of afghanistan and pakistan.
Then, on may 1, 2011, president barack obama authorized a covert mission.
Petraeus: Needless to say there were concerns about whether the pakistanis
Would support this operation, might impede it.
This was so important that the decision was made obviously
To go ahead without alerting them.
Reporter (over tv): After all this waiting, all this heartache, all this search,
All this failure, the united states government
Is now convinced that it has the body of osama bin laden.
Obama: Tonight, I can report to the american people and to the world,
That the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden,
The leader of al-qaeda.
Crowd: U-s-a, u-s-a!
Narrator: Bin laden's death closed a dark chapter in world history.
But islamic extremism and terrorism
Would continue, even without him.
Petraeus: I think it's very important to take out islamist extremist leaders,
But you can't think that taking out leaders is going to take out the rest.
You also have to go after the body of the snake.
Narrator: The cold war has been replaced with a war on terror, and ironically,
The americans have replaced the soviets in the country they once occupied.
Bush: Our war on terror is only begun.
Obama: Here, in afghanistan, more than half a million of our sons and daughters
Have sacrificed to protect our country.
Trump: Our troops will fight to win.
We will fight to win.
Baker: Some people have argued that the fall of communism led to the spread
Of islamic fundamentalism in afghanistan.
The west became the enemy, and here we are today, we're still there.
Narrator: The united states has been waging a war in afghanistan now for nearly
18 years, with seemingly no end in sight.
In the middle east and across the world, conflict continues.
So how does america resolve this struggle against an enemy with no defined borders?
Petraeus: The paradox of this fight, is that you cannot defeat islamist extremists.
You can't counter these kinds of terrorists with
Just counter terrorist force operations alone.
You can't just delta force raid or drone strike your way out of this problem.
Soufan: Terror is a symptom of something.
So, I think what you need to do is you need to go down to the root of the problem.
There's so many different incubating factors that feeds into the threat matrix.
Tomsen: The worst case scenario is that we keep making mistakes,
And we don't follow wise policies.
And this militant islamism continues to advance, not only in afghanistan,
Which it's doing today, we're still losing ground in afghanistan,
But in other countries where this ideology spreads,
Like communism spread.
Soufan: The new generation of extremists are so numb to humanity
In any way, shape or form.
They present themselves as people who are really fighting to protect islam.
They have monopoly over the real religion even though
95% of their victims are muslims.
Petraeus: Al-qaeda first under bin laden, then of course under his successor,
Were concerned about the levels of extremist activity, of the barbarity.
And al-qaeda essentially excommunicated the islamic state.
Isis went its own way and really became a competitor.
Soufan: Most of the people that go and fight with isis and al-qaeda,
You know, have an identity issue, have an assimilation issue.
From ideological perspective, these guys are totally now
Just brainwashed to hate and to kill.
Petraeus: I think it's very easy to be frustrated with the progress in afghanistan,
Frustrated with the growth of the islamic state.
But it is what it is,
And I think at the end of the day you stop answering whether you
Are an optimist or a pessimist, and you just say you are a realist.
Baker: Idealism versus realism.
Idealism will always inform america's foreign policy positions,
But you cannot practice foreign policy according
To the principles of mother teresa.
It's a sad thing for me to say, but it's true.
You have to have a strong national interest if you're gonna sustain a policy.
Petraeus: The threat of islamist extremists is generational.
This is not a fight that we're going to win in a decade,
Much less a few years.
It's impossible to give a prediction of how much longer it will take
Until we can completely withdraw from afghanistan.
And in fact, I'm not sure I would advocate complete withdrawal.
It's all encompassing, because you have to help
Re-establish local governance,
You have to pursue reconstruction, schools,
Hospitals, clinics, local economies.
It's easy to say let's just give it up, let's be isolationists,
Let's retreat to fortress america,
Let these other countries deal with these situations,
But we've seen when we have tried to do that the result
Is greater instability, greater extremism, and
Attacks against the united states and our allies in western europe.
Reporter (over tv): Breaking news out of london, a deadly terror attack overnight.
Reporter (over tv): A deadly blast outside of an ariana grande concert.
Girl: Oh my god!
Reporter (over tv): It is the deadliest terror attack in France in decades,
Unfolding in a horrific few minutes in the downtown streets of paris.
Miller: The war on terror isn't ever gonna be won by the police or government.
The war is gonna be won by fixing the problem that leads you to the battle.
Soufan: Some of the policies, some of the rhetoric that you hear from politicians,
Actually feeds into the playbook of osama bin laden.
So we have to be very careful by not telling the muslims
'you're either with us, or against us,' because they are us.
Petraeus: The whole world is going to have to combine to defeat islamist extremism.
Reporter (over tv): They came in their thousands, standing together in unity,
In the face of an attack designed to divide.
Petraeus: For us this is a major security threat to be sure.
But for muslim countries, this is an existential struggle
For the heart of the islamic world.
Captioned by cotter captioning services.