The war in Afghanistan started 18 years ago to fight terrorism after 9/11. Is the US safer?

The world was dramatically different 18 years ago when the war in Afghanistan started.

Thousands of families were grappling with the deaths of their loved ones in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 and the American public was coming to terms with the reality of an enemy unlike any the nation had faced before -- a shadowy network of terrorists that orchestrated the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

Less than a month after the attacks, on Oct. 7, 2001, the course of U.S. military operations changed for years to come when Operation Enduring Freedom officially launched, with then-President George W. Bush announcing the action during an address from the White House Treaty Room.

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