Lupta cu terorismul

War on Terror

Reaction to the September 11, 2001 events

It was with disbelief and shock that around the world, people saw the news footage of the events on September 11, 2001 of the planes-turned-missiles that saw the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and damage of the Pentagon. What is probably the worst terrorist attack on the United States, is totally inexcusable and to be condemned.

Some 3000 were killed.” Initial fears were that it was over 6000”

The subsequent bombing of Afghanistan to attack Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban for harboring them has also led to some 3,500 civilian deaths, according to an independent study released at the beginning of December 2001.

The ghastly terrorist attacks led to a mixture of political, social and economic reaction around the world.

As extremist Arab terrorists are believed to be the perpetrators, hatred and anti-Islam sentiment, without distinguishing the despotic militants from ordinary Muslims has increased, even though most of the Muslim communities around the world have condemned this act.

While visible efforts were seen by politicians to try to separate terrorists from Muslims in general, it has not been easy. On the one hand, after years of economic and geopolitical history, there are some aspects of distrust, while on the other hand, extremists in the Muslim and Christian communities are adding to the antagonisms. For example, during the height of the shock and anger to the September 11 attacks, extremist tendencies in the West resulted in beatings and even killings of Muslims. Even non-Muslims that just happened to have long beards or in some way resembled Taliban/Al Qaeda members were targeted. Others saw this as “proof” that Islam is inherently violent or that it is the primary threat to the rest of the world, etc. On the Muslim side, there have also been equally extreme reactions, from support of these terrorist acts to even being convinced that this was some sort of Zionist conspiracy to blame Muslims! In both cases these seem to be a minority of people with such extreme views but of course the concern is always that it will increase over time.

There was no question that there was going to be some sort of retaliation and response from the United States. One could not have expected them seriously to refrain from wanting to take revenge.Yet the fear was in what form this revenge would be and how it would be carried out, plus the impacts on ordinary Afghans who have suffered at the hands of the Taliban and outside forces and influences for years.

In addition, some eight months after the attacks it was revealed in the mainstream press around the world that the CIA had warned George Bush of the threats weeks before September 11. This caused an uproar in many places, including the United States Congress, where members are demanding more information to understand if all those deaths could have been prevented.

Resulting “War on Terror”

The terrible events of September 11 saw the considerable quieting of what was until then growing domestic and international criticism of the Bush Administration. The September 11 events resulted in a “war on terror” which saw support for Bush and his popularity soar at the time.

Up to September 11, 2001, the Bush administration was being criticized around the world for its stances on various issues domestically and internationally. Even European and other allies were very critical of positions on numerous global issues.

But even before the Bush Administration, throughout the world, many nations and groups of people had expressed their frustrations at how U.S. foreign policies had affected them on all sorts of issues, ranging from economic/globalization issues that have deepened poverty and/or inequality for most people around the world; geopolitics/arms/missile defense; environmental issues and so on. Protests either directly, or indirectly at U.S. policies have occurred all around the world—especially on globalization issues.