A Never-Ending War? Consequences of September 11Professor Paul Rogers and Dr. Scilla Elworthy, March 2002
The immediate aftermath of 9/11 included a profound and widespread sympathy for the people of the United States. Although the Twin Towers meant more to Americans than to the world as a whole, the sheer human loss, and the vision of the collapse of the towers, reverberated around the world. Since then, domestic support in the United States for what has come to be known as ‘the war on terror’ has remained high, though is falling, but across the world there is a developing unease. It has begun to surface as tough US military responses concentrating on capturing or killing perceived terrorists in a series of actions that seems set to escalate and has already killed far more people than died in the atrocities in New York and Washington. This paper examines the development of US security policy in the first six months after the attacks, and does so in the context of the attitudes and policies of the Bush administration as they developed since taking office in January 2001. It then goes on to look at the effects of the actions in relation to the aim of defeating terrorism and explores the further development of US policy in the context of President Bush’s State of the Union address, the new defence budget, and the identification of numerous paramilitary organisations across the world as threats to the United States. The differing views becoming clear in Europe and the majority world are then assessed, together with the long-term consequences of US security policy. In conclusion some suggestions are offered to throw light on this policy and propose alternatives. Availability
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