The anniversary of the tragic events that took place on Sept. 11 is a stark reminder of many things. One of the most apparent is how little progress the U.S. government has made in making the world safer.
The most immediate effect the attacks of Sept. 11 had was that they shattered our false sense of security. We have come to realize that the global threat of terrorism is different from any of the previous international challenges we have faced in the past. In the wake of the Cold War, the international community pressingly stressed the build-up of a global system of economic, social and cultural independence through the strengthening of the United Nations, NATO and other international agencies to manage future global conflicts.
Yet the Bush administration took on a “you are either with us or against us” approach and completely bypassed the international system. To justify these actions, the administration cited the urgent threat Iraq posed to the security of the world. In a nationwide addresses a year after the attacks, President Bush claimed, “While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone – because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place.” This explanation relied heavily on Bush’s attempt to deceptively link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and the attacks of Sept. 11 – a lie that has had a lasting impact on the American public’s perception of the war in Iraq.
Unfortunately, the international security threat Iraq poses now is much greater than it ever was prior to the attacks. For starters, the U.S. botched a huge opportunity to expand its credibility and influence by appealing to the moderate voices in the Middle East. Instead we managed to radicalize many in the Middle East by acting unilaterally, giving weight to the notion that the U.S. is belligerent in its use of force and suspicious of Islam. Rather than focusing on the real threat, al-Qaeda, we turned to Iraq. According to P.W. Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, our actions allowed what once was a specific centralized organization to evolve into a “self-organized, self-inspired and cellular” group guided by the general extremist ideology of al-Qaeda.
To illustrate this point, understand that the bombings in London and Madrid were not masterminded by an independent group of extremists that were inspired by the ideology of al-Qaeda. It is clear the threat this global network of terrorists presents is far greater than what the world faced prior to the Iraq invasion.
These issues are compounded by other emerging conflicts, such as Iran’s role in aiding the sectarian violence in Iraq and supporting other terrorist groups like Hezbollah, all of which must be analyzed in relation to the actions we have taken since Sept. 11.
Despite the desperate dilemma we face, there is something we can do. Nearly every approach the administration has taken to address the threat of terrorism has focused primarily on some sort of strategic military operation. Rarely has the U.S. utilized its diplomatic arm to handle any of the crises. According to the Pentagon’s “Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism,” any recipe for success against terrorism must include “countering ideological support for terrorism.”
That means we must build up what (little) diplomatic credibility we have left and address some of the basic issues that allow extremist ideologies to thrive. Instead of allocating the majority of our defense budget in Iraq to strictly military operations, we should rebuild and provide essential services like water, sewage and electricity to Iraqi civilians. We should encourage a more open cultural exchange between the U.S. and Muslim nations.
There is an incredible amount of progress that can be made to diminish the threat of terrorism. But none of that will ever be realized if we give the Bush Administration another vote of confidence by electing officials that support its foreign policy. With the November congressional elections coming up, do your homework and make your voice heard by voting.
Alan Wright is senior economics and government and politics major. He can be reached at amwright2@gmail.com.
