The War On Terror

The War on Terror, a term that changed the course of history forever,
it was first coined by the former US president George W. Bush on the 11th of September 2001. The first major terrorist attack on the USA was made and that is why President Bush had introduced this term, the casualties were great, about 3,000 innocent American citizens were murdered in cold blood after the suicidal plane crashing on the World Trade Centre towers (Twin Towers) in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. Under these terrible circumstances the president and his administration had to take immediate action and in his first speech after the attacks the president started off by saying “Today our way of life and freedom came under attack.” This marked the beginning of drastic changes in the American grand strategy, now President Bush declared that the USA will fight terrorism and that the whole world had to aid the US military in this war. After the adoption f the war on terror, president Bush, in most of his speeches, always described the war on terror as the last hope of survival and that only way to save Justice, freedom and democracy which are basically the principles that the USA is based on. Today The War on Terror is considered to be the worst policy the USA has adopted because, it lost its true purpose after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it was used to justify war crimes committed by the military and it has destroyed the Economy.
With the new policy adopted by the USA president Bush used a very new and threatening one to address the world, especially when he said “ Every nation in every region, now has a decision to make either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” he was successful in reaching to the American peoples’ sense of security, their love for America and their anger and hatred towards the Al-Qaeda and Taliban, the two groups that were responsible for the horrific actions. The two groups have their own individual history with the USA, especially Al-Qaeda who are led by Osama Bin Laden who declared the holy war (Jihad) on the USA in 1998 because of the constant support that is given by the USA to Israel especially after the Palestinian Intifada. With such a hostile history between the two the USA and Al-Qaeda, it was a lot easier for president Bush to persuade the American people that they need to fight back against these evil groups, in addition to these reasons, it was clear that terrorist acts especially by Al-Qaeda greatly increased during the 1990’s. To prove this using statistical figures, between the years 1968 and 1989 about 35,150 terrorist acts were recorded which means that an average 1673 were recorded each year, however between the years 1990 and 1996 about 30,725 terrorists acts were recorded and an average of 4,38 terrorist acts were recorded each year (Chalk 152).
That is why president Bush presented the War on Terror as; a desperate act that had to be taken in order to for the Americans to protect their selves and their values especially justice and freedom. It was also presented as a vengeful act, the people wanted to avenge their families and friends who were killed for no reason and the government would give them that. Naturally what happened after that is the invasion of Afghanistan, where Taliban’s and Al-Qaeda’s headquarters were, by the USA and its allies from around the world. A lot of diplomatic relations were negatively effected by this war, especially the relations with Arab and Islamic states, countries around the world became more suspicious that any Arab and Muslim who visited their country could have, in one way or another, a certain relation with any terrorist group. The war on terror also led to the occurrence of new terms such as the Axis of Evil, which was basically list of the countries that were accused of aiding terrorism and are developing or processing weapons of mass destruction, four out six countries in that list were Islamic countries. President Bush introduced a new term that he would use in order to describe the leaders of those four Islamic countries, which was “Islamo-Fascist” such as, Saddam Hussein, this term had a huge negative effect because , it linked Fascism to a religion and it made many people believe that Islam is linked to fascism.
The situation remained unchanged, the war on terror continued and it was seen as a justified war against Osama Bin Laden and his followers. However, after two years of a fruitless war in Afghanistan, president Bush declared war on Iraq and considered this to be a part of the war on terror, he accused Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi president, of supporting terrorism and that he supported the terrorists that were responsible for the attacks in 2001. In addition to this, Saddam Hussein was also accuse of having weapons of mass destruction, also being a tyrant against his own people, all of this was presented with no proof or evidence, at first the American people were convinced with what was claimed by president Bush, at this point it was clear that the true cause and purpose of the war on terror was lost, especially after it was proven that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks.
During these wars a lot of reports came out and displayed the torture that had happened to the prisoners in the US army’s custody, especially the photos that were taken in Abu-Gharib prison. Such events were justified by the use of the term “War on Terror” it was now clear to the world the US government and military officials have truly lost their way, the war on terror became very unpopular ever since. Not only were war crimes committed but also violations to the human rights law even out of Iraq and Afghanistan such as, renditions where governments, especially in the USA, would stop any civilian, usually Muslims, and take them in for interrogation and lots of times they torture innocents and imprison them just out of suspicion. The Bush Administration would justify these acts as security measures that had to be taken in order to ensure the safety of the USA, a lot of people may view such acts as a violation of human rights; the same rights that USA calls and fight for, and it is also these rights that supposedly fueled the war on terror, yet some of the people supported these acts and saw it as the most convenient way for the government to protect them.
America’s reputation suffered greatly around the world, it became the most unpopular country in the world and the Bush administration also became very unpopular even in America. But that was not the end of the negative impacts of the war on terror, because president Bush and his administration engaged in two wars that would eventually cost the government three trillion American dollars and since a lot of it is allocated through taxation, people could not pay off their debt, mortgages, etc… and with the rise of oil prices and the weakened US dollar the American economy has gone into a recession that could be considered stronger than the 1930’s. A lot of the American people, especially the educated, saw this coming an would criticize the American government for engaging in such an open-ended war, for example Timothy Garton Ash describe the war on terror in his article “The War on Terror is Over.” As an “abstract noun.” He also discussed the difference between this war previous ones that the USA engaged in by saying “It’s never been anything like the Second World War, against Hitler’s Germany, or the Cold War, against the Soviet Union. Where does Terror live? What is its Capital? Who Commands its army?” this basically means that the USA does not know its enemy, it is fighting a foul belief and a foul ideology which has no nation, no religion and no identity.
With all of this being exposed people have realized how wrong the war on terror was, they have realized that their government lied about many things even about very important issues such as, America’s safety Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. Still with all of this happening, George W. Bush succeeded to stay in office for one more term, his stance towards the war on terror remains unchanged he still wanted to go through this never ending war, in Iraq the situation got worse an a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites broke out, this resulted in the huge increase of bloodshed and insecurity in all Iraqi cities. The situation in Afghanistan have also gotten worse, crime rates have increased, the war between the USA military and Taliban is getting fiercer and drug trafficking and production have significantly increased, it was now clear that the war on terror was a complete failure. With all of this mess happening, in 2006 the United Kingdom decided to drop the term “War on Terror” once and for all, the British economy was suffering greatly, Tony Blair, the prime minister, fell out of favor not only because of the decline in economic power but also fighting a war that is not directly theirs.
The War on Terror has achieved no improvements what so ever, the political, economic and social situations around the world is at its worst. Terrorists are more powerful and influential, the economies around the world are in deep trouble and the people are now more prone to violence than any other era in human history and the values of humanity are at stake. The Bush administration is now gone but the problems they have caused remain unsolved, George W. Bush left the Whitehouse with all of its problems to Barack Obama and his administration. After being in office Obama drops the term War on Terror by doing a couple of things, first by ordering the closing down of the Guantanamo detention facility, second by naming an emissary dedicated only to the issue of Palestine and Israel peace talks and by giving his very first presidential interview to the Al- Arabiya network.
President Obama has realized the harmful effects of the War on Terror on America and he is trying to do reforms within America and its foreign policies. He also described the war on terror as the “politics of fear” that is why he is approaching the Islamic world in a very new manner, for example, in his speeches he praises Islam and Muslims and he rejects the idea linking Islam to terrorism in any way. He is now focusing on the complete annihilation of Al-Qaeda the people who are truly responsible for the September 11th attacks, he has promised to leave Iraq because it was a mistake in the first place, today the era of the War on Terror have supposedly ended.
In conclusion the War on Terror is now viewed as the worst policy the USA have adopted in its history, the people have had enough of bloodshed, threats, aggression and violence everyone wants peace now, I hope we could see true peace in the following years. Unfortunately the terrible image about Islam still exists, the people around the world should understand that Islam is a religion based on peace, love and forgiveness, it has nothing to do with terrorism, even the word Jihad it does not necessarily mean war it could be aiding the poor or protecting society from crimes and even when there is a war Jihad is more of a defensive stance. People should engage in dialogues between each other, we should learn from one another, create a better world and safer world for the future generations, and understand how to deal with another and how to live as brothers of humanity on this earth.

 

1- Ash, Timothy G. “The War on Terror is over.” The Age 27 January 2004: 9, Lexis Nexis. Web. 31/10/2009.

2- Barnouw, Dagmar. “The Fog of “Evil”: The Political Use of World War II In the Ongoing War On Terror.” Socialism& Democracy Vol. 23 Issue 1 (2009): 3- 23.Academic Search Complete. Web. 31/10/2009.

3- Boyle, Michael J. “The War On Terror in American Grand Strategy.” International Affairs. Vol. 84 Issue 2 (2008): 191-209. Academic Search Complete. Web. 02/11/2009.

4- Chalk, Peter. “The Evolving Of Terrorism in the 1990’s.” Australian Journal of Internal Affairs. Vol. 53 Issue 2 (1999): 151- 167. Academic Search complete. Web. 01/11/2009.

5- Hooks, Gregory And Mosher Clayton “Outrages Against Personal Dignity: Rationalizing Abuse and Torture in the War on Terror.” Social Forces. Vol. 83 Issue 4 (2005): 1627-1645. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29/11/2009.

6- LaFranchi, Howard and Lubold Gordon. “Obama Redefines War On Terror.” Christian Science Monitor. 30 January 2009: 25. Lexis Nexis. Web. 03/11/2009.

7- Murphy, John M. “ ‘Our Mission and Our Moment’: George W. Bush and September 11th.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs. (2003): 607-632. America: History& Life. Web. 01/11/2009.

8- Reid, Julian. “The Biopolitics of The War on Terror: a critique of the ‘return of imperialism’ thesis in international relations.” Third World Quarterly. Vol.26 Issue 2. (2005): 237-252. Academic Search complete. Web. 29/11/2009.

9- Santucci, Joe. “A Question of Identity: The Use of Torture in Asymmetric War.” Journal of Military Ethics. Vol. 7 Issue 1. (2008): 29-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 01/11/2009.

10- Semmerling, Tim Jon. “Those “Evil” Muslims! Orientalist Fears in the Narratives of the War on Terror.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Vol. 28 Issue 2 (2008): 207-223. Academic Search complete. Web. 01/11/2009.

 

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