Impact of terrorism on the global community after September 11, 2001

¶ … Terrorism

The impact that terrorism has had on the global community since September 11, 2001 has been profound to say the least. In this short essay, the author will address the intent of terrorists, their methods, the political objectives, and the global response. In addition, they will include a treatment and analysis of how terrorism has affected international cooperation and other relations. Unfortunately, it is the opinion of this author that the efforts of the United States since September 11, 2001 have only exacerbated the problem. The methods and the political objectives of the terrorists have been largely achieved due to the American mismanagement of the war on terrorism. When one soberly reflects upon the present quagmires (one must use the plural form) that the U.S. finds itself in the Middle East, there are few other options but to review how we got where we are and how to extricate ourselves. These reflections are now critical. After ten years, our country's economy is a wreck and we are faced with an imperial presidency that wages war without any Congressional approval and must wonder if the police state that our country has become is worth the occasional terrorist attack.

In many ways, Islamic terrorism is "new" to the United States. While this may seem laughably pathetic in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, Islamic terrorism against U.S. targets in Lebanon and elsewhere in the 1980's and the Iran-Contra scandal, Western policy planners have been truly clueless as to how to analyze the problem and how to proceed. The origins of this new terrorism were traced in a 2004 article by Matthew J. Morgan in Parameters, the journal of the U.S. Army War College. The analysis of this major defense think tank reveals that we are still mystified at the ability of religion to be a revolutionary factor in the modern age. Morgan remarks that "The National Commission on Terrorism found that fanaticism rather than political interests is more often the motivation now...," as if there is a separation of mosque and state in Muslim countries (Morgan, 2004, 31). Morgan's reflections are particularly annoying in their simplicity given the power of religion in bringing down communism in countries like Poland or Afghanistan during the Cold War. Is it any wonder that our pain has begun in Afghanistan, the very country that proved to be the Achille's heal of the former Soviet Union?

Perhaps to understand the enemy better, we should consider his words to divine his intent of terrorists his methods, his political objectives and the global response he hopes to achieve. In a 2004 speech broadcast on Al Jazeera, Osama Bin Laden does exactly this. Unlike Mr. Morgan, Osama bin Laden's mind was affected by Lebanon. He remarks at his opposition to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and how he felt that the U.S. "let" Israel invade. From this incident came the justification for the formation of Al-Qaeda and its terrorist attacks beginning in the 1990's, of which 9/11 was just a continuation. Interestingly, bin Laden remarked about the Bush administration and the Patriot Act and the "resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents (Bin Laden, 2004)." According to bin Laden, it was easy to bait Bush with rumors of Al-Qaeda's plotting overseas. Then, military forces would be sent " in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies. (ibid)." In short, bin Laden aims to defeat the U.S. As he did the Soviets, via asymetrical guerilla warfare that they excel at (ibid). In short, his objective is to bring the U.S. To its knees as he did the former Soviet Union via the methodology of guerilla warfare by dragging the U.S. into quagmires that will ruin it economically with the result that the world will turn on America.

Terrorism has affected international cooperation and other relations profoundly. While in the immediate wake of 9/11, the U.S. enjoyed enormous international good will, it squandered that as quickly as it did life and treasure in the pursuit of the War on Terror. Now, the U.S. is at best suspect and at worst seen as the enemy. In the words of a Report of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy