The al-Qaida leader envisaged an economically battered US withdrawing from the Middle East – and a global Muslim uprising. Then the tide turned, says Jason Burke, the Guardian’s international security correspondent

25 years after 9/11: Osama bin Laden, the man behind the attacks, remained at large for nearly a decade. The al Qaeda leader was killed in Pakistan in 2011.

The al-Qaida leader envisaged an economically battered US withdrawing from the Middle East – and a global Muslim uprising. Then the tide turned, says Jason Burke, the Guardian’s…