Four Organizations That Shattered the World Order: The Taliban, the Iraqi Mujahideen, Hamas, and HTS

When the Soviet Union officially dissolved at the end of 1991, the United States was left as the world’s de facto sole authority, unrivalled and without any significant power capable of standing in its way. It then set out to make the 21st century an American century. Having surpassed two centuries of existence, the United States believed it could do whatever it wanted. But very strange things began to happen in a short period of time. Things did not go according to plan at all. So much so that before the first quarter of the 21st century had even come to an end, the United States, once regarded as the sole ruler of the world, began to crack. The shocks eroding the American-led unipolar order can no longer be stopped.

The international order is undergoing major upheavals. Not only the United States, but also the other European states that rose to become key actors after the Second World War are rapidly losing their power, prestige and influence, while some states that had fallen into the background over the past two centuries are recovering and beginning to move to the forefront.

There are, of course, many different fundamental causes and parameters influencing this process. For that reason, we will not go into the subject in detail. In this article, we simply want to draw attention to how these four factors have affected and transformed the world by examining the examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Gaza.

Afghan Mujahideen and the Taliban

One of the most important causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Eastern pole of the bipolar world, was the unexpected defeat Moscow suffered in Afghanistan, which it had invaded. That defeat ultimately brought about its downfall. The Afghan mujahideen, whom the arrogant occupiers had never taken seriously—the men in white robes who, even in the freezing winter cold, wore nothing but slippers on their feet and fought in the mountains with rifles against occupiers armed with some of the deadliest weapons in the world—won the war after ten years of struggle and brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The September 11 Setup

The destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001…

Using the dubious Al-Qaeda attacks as a pretext, the United States declared war on so-called “global terrorism.” Fifty-one countries, including NATO members, became involved in the invasion of Afghanistan by sending troops. If we also include the countries that provided permission, bases, intelligence and diplomatic support for the invasion, more than 136 states stood on the side of the United States in the occupation of Afghanistan. Some 130,000 troops invaded the country.

During the 20-year war, hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped across the country. 3.6 million Afghans were killed. Twice as many people were left disabled. Those who found the opportunity and means to do so fled the country. An entire nation was devastated.

So, how did the 20-year war ultimately end?

As stated above, the country was devastated, millions were killed, wounded or forced to flee, but the richest and most powerful states in the world, led by the United States and possessing the deadliest weapons, decisively lost this terrible war. The terrifying power of the superpower United States was poured into the mountains of Afghanistan and exhausted there. According to President Trump, the United States lost $7–8 trillion in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

After all this, in 2021 the US-led coalition of occupying forces hurriedly fled, barely saving themselves and leaving without looking back. The occupying forces had launched a war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, whom they regarded as “terrorist organizations.” After 20 years of occupation, they were forced to hand power back to the Taliban. Indeed, the remaining British agents reportedly had to disguise themselves in the burqas worn by Afghan women in order to escape with their lives.

The states that entered Afghanistan with 130,000 troops—including the United States and the world’s most powerful countries—were clearly defeated by the Taliban, which was not even a regular army but a simple militia force. Afghanistan has once again been governed by the Taliban since 2021.

With this achievement, the Taliban shattered the perception in people’s minds that the United States and the West were “invincible.” This was an enormous achievement. The United States, whose prestige had in a sense been badly damaged, began to lose power continuously after this point. Its word no longer carried the same weight. It lost its deterrent capability. The international system operating under US leadership began to lose its validity.

The Victory of the Iraqi Mujahideen

Using the September 11 attacks as a pretext, the US-led “Crusader Coalition,” which had invaded Afghanistan in 2001, invaded Iraq in 2003, this time on fabricated grounds. The invasion was carried out by the approximately 49-country “Coalition of the Willing” and lasted for nine years in practical terms, until 2011, involving roughly 200,000 troops.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was brutally executed by having a noose placed around his neck live on television during Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest days for Muslims. The purpose of broadcasting these images was not to “deliver justice by showing the end of a cruel dictator,” but to send a message to all Muslims: “If you do not submit to us, this will be your fate.”

Even though the regime fell, the Iraqis did not surrender. They organized themselves and continued their resistance in order to liberate their country from occupation. The occupying forces then adopted a different strategy. They sought to discredit Iraqi patriots who were fighting against those who had come from the other side of the world to occupy their country, portraying them as “bloody terrorists” through images staged according to the scenarios of the occupying states. Bloody and brutal murder scenes produced in television and film studios and attributed to ISIS were used for this purpose. In this way, they sought to break the defensive strength of the Iraqi patriots and cut off their international support. But once again, they failed.

The occupying forces largely withdrew their armies in 2011, but this time they tried other ways of keeping Iraq under control by citing the supposed threat of ISIS. During this period, they cooperated with Iran and brought Iranian-aligned politicians to power in Iraq. They fueled Shia-Sunni conflict in the country. In the north, they focused on ethnic division through promises of independence to the Kurds. All these developments cost the lives of more than one million Iraqis, while the oil-rich country was devastated. Even the country’s museums were looted. Oil-rich Iraq was reduced to a country in need of oil.

So, What Happened in the End?

As of September 2026, the occupying United States has withdrawn all its troops from Iraq, dismantled all the military infrastructure it established during the occupation, and returned home, leaving behind enormous destruction, defeat and tragedy. Those individuals and groups who had relied on the occupying United States to establish hegemony in Iraq were left helpless, unexpectedly abandoned, with their heads bowed and disgraced.

With the defeat it suffered in Iraq, the noose used in Saddam Hussein’s execution was, in a sense, placed around the neck of the United States, the patron of the international order.

The Syrian Wars and HTS

While the war in Afghanistan was still continuing, the Syrian civil war began in 2011. The dictator Bashar al-Assad carried out massacres approaching the scale of genocide, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians. More than half of the country’s population was forced to flee either within Syria or abroad. Syria’s ancient cities were reduced to piles of rubble, just like Gaza.

Some 90 states and international organizations—including the United States, Russia, Iran, France and Britain—fought in Syria under the mask of the “Coalition Against ISIS,” fueling the war in order to protect their own interests and achieve their own objectives. Syria’s beautiful ancient cities were reduced to ruins. The result was horrific death and destruction.

HTS (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham), which was at times portrayed as being linked to ISIS, at times to Al-Qaeda and at other times to various other actors, launched an offensive from Idlib in northwestern Syria toward the end of 2024. HTS overturned all expectations and, within two weeks, seized control of the territory west of the Euphrates, including Damascus. It brought down the despotic Baathist rule imposed for a combined 54 years by the dictators Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad. Bashar al-Assad fled to his patron Russia. For Iran, which had been left with Syria as a sphere of influence by the United States, the collapse of the Assad regime and its forced departure from the country represented a loss that was difficult to swallow.

Thus, an era came to an end in Syria. Within two years, eastern Syria was also cleared of YPG militants. The country’s territorial integrity was restored. A new era began.

The victory of HTS constituted the third major blow to the US-centered unipolar world. The United States not only cancelled the reward it had placed on the head of HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa on the grounds that he was the leader of a “terrorist organization”; President Trump went so far as to praise Sharaa repeatedly. The severe sanctions imposed on Syria for decades were lifted.

Another noose was placed around the neck of the international order.

Hamas Delivers the Final Kick to the Stool Beneath the Gallows of the International Order

Gaza is a narrow strip of coastline extending northward along the Mediterranean from the northern Sinai region of the historic Palestinian lands. The occupying Israel gradually seized territory piece by piece, driving a wedge between the Palestinian lands of the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas, which governs Gaza, launched an attack against occupying Israel on October 7 through Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, at a time Israel least expected it and using methods it had never anticipated.

At first, the vast majority of the world—particularly the United States and all European countries—supported Israel, which they regarded as legitimate, against Hamas, which they regarded as illegitimate and even as a “terrorist organization.” Some Arab and Muslim countries were also part of this group.

Yet the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which today has 57 member states, had originally been established as the Organization of the Islamic Conference on September 22–25, 1969, in Rabat, through an alliance of Muslim leaders in response to the arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on August 21, 1969.

But in recent years, some Arab and Muslim countries had not only abandoned the struggle to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem; having lost hope that such a goal was possible, they had even begun supporting the Abraham Accords process and seeking agreements with Israel.

It was precisely at a time when some Muslims had begun to think, “We are finished,” and Israel had begun to believe that it had “succeeded,” becoming increasingly emboldened, that something happened which shocked Tel Aviv and all Zionists and their supporters around the world.

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, affiliated with Hamas, came “flying” through the air and moving on the ground, and in a single night shattered the prestige of the Israeli army (IDF), Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman—the mysterious strategic institutions of Israel to whose strength and invincibility the entire world had, in a sense, “professed faith.”

After all, this was the same Israel that had decisively defeated the three largest Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan and Syria—in only six days in June 1967.

During the first days, the world found it difficult to believe what had happened. Believing that Israel would not let this go unanswered, numerous states continued to support the genocide carried out by these Zionist killers. In order to preserve its image, Israel unleashed everything it had—explosives, missiles, bombs, dynamite and demolition materials—upon Gaza like rain. It placed the tiny strip, home to 2.2 million Muslims, under an inhuman blockade. It completely cut off electricity, drinking water, food and medical supplies. No one was allowed to enter or leave the territory.

For three years, more than two million innocent civilians were trapped from all sides, in the freezing cold of winter and desert heat approaching 50 degrees Celsius in summer. For three years, these people received no public services and were deprived even of private humanitarian assistance. Their homes, buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals, shops and everything that made their lives easier were destroyed. The destruction and rubble caused by Israeli bombs in Gaza exceeded 60 million tons. Tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians remain buried beneath the rubble and have yet to be recovered.

The countries that had spent centuries lecturing the rest of the world with lofty slogans about human rights, freedom, independence, civil rights and even such concepts as animal rights and the rights of nature fell into a deep silence. The modern world did not merely watch from a distance as these events unfolded; while more than two million people were subjected to genocide under a total siege and heavy bombardment, those countries provided the Israeli killers with every conceivable form of assistance, including bombs, missiles, aircraft, money, weapons, intelligence and political support.

Hamas, however, did not take even a single step backward despite all these adverse circumstances. It continued its resistance to the very end, prepared to risk everything—death, destruction and annihilation.

Israel, which had once defeated three major Arab states in six days, has failed to defeat Hamas, a single organization, even after three years.

Yet at the end of these three years, Hamas stands before the world as, if not formally, then practically, a recognized representative and organization of the Palestinian people. At the same time, Israel, which the world had long regarded as a state, has come to be viewed by the world as a genocidal and murderous network.

Almost the entire world now supports the Palestinians, while almost the entire world has come to regard Israel as a genocidal, murderous and contemptible regime. Palestine is rapidly becoming a state recognized by the world, while Israel has reached the point where its once-powerful image and reputation have been destroyed and its very status as a state is being called into question. Even the United States, the last significant state standing behind Israel, now hates Israel and the Zionists.

That flamboyant Zionism, meanwhile, has lost its spell and is approaching the threat of being regarded as a global criminal organization.

The victories of the Taliban, the Iraqi Mujahideen, HTS and Hamas are epic victories. They will take their place in the golden pages of history. Historians will write about how the Taliban, the Iraqi Mujahideen, HTS and Hamas brought down the international system and its masters, who had turned it into a plaything of the oppressors.

The Taliban, the Iraqi Mujahideen, HTS and Hamas did not merely challenge today’s global powers and Zionism. They also gave courage to other oppressed peoples. At the same time, they set in motion a struggle for the Islamic countries, which had been separated from one another—and at times even hostile to one another—for a century, to come together again and claim their place in the new world order.

The establishment and future of the Mecca Defense Alliance should be viewed from this perspective.

As the third anniversary of the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood approaches, we congratulate the Afghan, Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian mujahideen who have brought down the oppressive order, as well as those who have provided them with every form of material and moral support and those who, although unable to do anything else, have prayed and struggled spiritually for their victory.

May the victories of those who have fought selflessly for their homelands, faith and honor be blessed, and may they herald new victories.

We give thanks to Allah for bringing an end to the terrible wars waged against the peoples of the Islamic world for two centuries and for allowing us to witness these days.

Alper Tan

September 29, 2026