Following Al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the United States' subsequent inconclusive wars in Afghanistan (2001–present) and Iraq (2003–2011), initiated by US President George W. Bush, Professor Gary Weaver and his co-author Adam Mendelson, writing in 2008, cited a survey of 109 historians, 99% of whom rated Bush a "failure" as president, two-thirds rating him the "worst ever". Weaver and Mendelson wrote that the United States had been in its "childhood" before 1898; in its "adolescence", 1898–1945; in "young adulthood", 1945–1991; in "adulthood", 1991–2001. Weaver and Mendelson, from their 2008 perspective, anticipated that the traumas of the George W. Bush presidency would "season [the United States] with new strength, wisdom and maturity", enabling it to move forward from this political midlife crisis.