The success of the 9/11 attacks cannot be understated (see Jean Baudrillard's The Spirit of Terrorism).

After a supposed victory over an ideological opponent (USSR), the US engaged in building the "rules based international order" and, after a frenzy of neoliberal export (Bosnia), began to show rot. The cultural angst of the late 90's - unintentionally enunciated in Fukiyama's "End of History" - reflected the hollow promise of the capitalist vision.

The 9/11 attacks forced the contradictions of this aimless and self-destructive impulse into overdrive and spawned an unfocused frenzy of jingoism which served to mask the profound disquiet festering at the core of the American psyche.

That ideological bankruptcy has forced into focus the fundamental inability of capitalism to build a resonant faith in structural stability and justice.