However , the Labour government had attracted controversy by sending British troops to fight in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 , and even more so when it joined the American-led invasion of Iraq eighteen months later – particularly when it emerged that the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein 's alleged weapons of mass destruction were never found , and serious questions were raised about the issue of going to war . Although the dictatorship regimes in both of these countries were swiftly ended by British and American troops , the remaining British forces were not withdrawn from Iraq until 2009 and not from Afghanistan until 2014
11 September terrorist attacks
September 11 attacks
Blair ministry