From an immediate perspective, the 16 tons of bombs dropped by the Doolittle Raiders did very little damage to Japan. However, the strategic impact of that raid was huge. The raid was an insult to the Japanese military. As a result of the raid, Japan pulled several air units back from the front for home defense. Even more important, the Doolittle Raid spurred the Japanese to try to capture Midway to prevent any future carrier attacks on the home islands. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the Pacific war.

As for today's war, some sort of reprisal attack will probably happen within the next week or two. It probably won't do a lot of damage to the terrorists but will just be the opening event in something that will take many years to complete.