New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- On 11 September 2001, two passenger aircraft deployed as missiles by hijackers struck New York City's iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center 17 minutes apart. It did not take a third strike-the US Pentagon was bombed next-for the very spectacle of its intent to certify a terror attack, America's most horrific.

Labelled '9/11,' the day's horrors left nearly 3,000 people dead and the world's most powerful country in shock.

No sooner had Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network been identified as the culprit than 9/11 triggered America's 'forever war' on Afghanistan to depose its Taliban regime for hosting that ragtag militia.

In 2003, the US embarked on a high-octane war of "shock and awe" to oust Iraq's dictator a...