America's War on Terrorism After 9/11: Security Changes

Introduction: America's Post-9/11 Security Landscape

America's War on Terrorism since the attacks of September 11, 2001 has largely been conducted through an intensification of domestic security across all areas. The most prominent milestone was the capture of Osama bin Laden, followed by a phased withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. Nonetheless, security alert remains at an all-time high, and the Department of Defense continues to receive a disproportionately large share of fiscal allocation and political focus.

The post-9/11 era intensified the desire for security at home, modifying the military-intelligence establishment, reforming much that was flawed, and, in many ways, creating institutions that were vastly different from those that had existed before. The Central Intelligence Agency was among the institutions sharpened in the process, and America intensified its assertiveness both domestically and abroad.

Surveillance Expansion and the NSA

The government has stepped up its surveillance apparatus by constructing a highly intricate and controversial eavesdropping data system run by the National Security Agency (NSA). This system contains trillions of emails, web searches, and commercial transactions (McGregor, 2011). A similar system, of equally massive scale, was near completion in San Antonio, Texas. Both systems support the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and house everything "from records of phone calls to and from Iran to credit card purchases by potential suspects at home" (McGregor, 2011).

The NSA has intensified its grip on surveillance by closely tracking each movement of potential enemies. According to James Bamford, cited by McGregor (2011), the NSA intended "to store data roughly equal to a septillion — a 1 followed by 24 zeroes — pages of text by 2015." The NSA invested approximately $2 billion in its massive data storage center in Utah, a figure that is modest compared to the $700 billion poured into defense spending over the preceding decade. Critics also raised concerns about the waste incorporated into that broader spending.

Defense Spending After September 11

Spending on defense, security, and intelligence projects increased a thousandfold following 9/11, despite America's economic recession. Public anger also resulted from revelations of bureaucratic failures that had prevented various government departments from sharing information with one another — a flaw that contributed to the nation's vulnerability on September 11. America's intelligence establishment moved to correct this by drawing the various departments closer together and encouraging mutual information sharing.

Defense spending became one of America's largest priorities. William Hartung of the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, observed:

"The Pentagon budget rode on the coat-tails of 9/11. Pretty much whatever they asked for was given, because we were at war… In absolute terms, military spending is higher than it has been since World War Two — it is higher than during the Korean War." (McGregor, 2011)

President Barack Obama largely retained the security implementations introduced under President Bush, changing little while extending America's military presence in Afghanistan before planning a phased withdrawal following the capture of Osama bin Laden. Defense spending allocations were also mostly maintained at their former elevated levels.

Critics argued that this spending only exacerbated the national debt through irrational prioritization, and that funds should have been distributed to other sectors. David Rothkopf, a national security expert and former official in the Clinton administration, commented: "The opportunity cost of retreating from reform efforts in the U.S. was doubly damaging… Not only have we focused on the wrong thing and gone about it the wrong way, our economy has become dramatically less competitive."

Conclusion: A War-Weary Nation

Some see U.S. policy after 9/11 as being driven by an arrogant stance of force rather than diplomacy, and by a hubris that came from the toppling of Saddam Hussein. McGregor (2011), however, concludes that "ten years after 9/11, the U.S. is war-weary and introspective in a way it has not been for a generation." The federal budget had been depleted, and the country remained insecure in important respects. Nonetheless, positive developments did emerge. Different government departments were brought together, new institutions were created, and old ones were reformed. And the country was watched over — and watched itself — as it had never been before.

References

McGregor, R. (September 6, 2011). America after 9/11: A nation fixated with its security. Financial Times.