United States Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism

United States Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism

Introduction

When analyzing the world's current situation concerning terrorism, it is difficult to say whether the global war on terrorism has been a successful one. Since the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centers in New York City, George Bush, former president of the United States, vowed to defeat terrorism. Eight years later, this promise has yet to be fulfilled, and even with the help of many countries globally, the threat of terrorism is still evident more then ever, which questions whether the global war on terror is succeeding. Moreover, to entirely grasp the subject, one must be familiar with the definition of terrorism and it can be defined as an act of violence or threatened violence intended to spread panic in a society, and to bring about political change. Terrorists do not necessarily live in their native states, they also migrate to neighboring countries, and countries abroad and often go undetected. The logistics and man power it takes to combat terrorism is immense, and it seems more evident that the global war on terrorism is not succeeding due to essentially three factors. First, that The United States has created a terrorist haven in the Middle East. Second, international support for the global war on terrorism is decreasing. Third, terrorism has been on the constant increase since September 11, 2001 (Jackson, 2005).

Discussion

On March 19, 2003, former American President George W. Bush announced to the world that the United States and the United Kingdom would be invading Iraq. He stated that this military operation was designed to “disarm Iraq, free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” America had seen Iraq to be a major threat against world peace as well as a “breeding ground for terrorists”, and that it had to eliminate this threat before they could attack again. On March 20, 2003, a day after President Bushes address, The United States and the United Kingdom began their invasion of Iraq. Although the invasion was intended to disarm Iraq from any weapons of mass destruction, it was also aimed at uncovering and eliminating any terrorist organizations within the country since several United States officials accused Hussein of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks.

The global war on terrorism had begun in 2003 where the coalition of the willing was created by George W. Bush, which were nations who supported the U.S.-led fight. The coalition of the willing was made up of forty-nine members, most notably, England, France, Germany, Japan, India and Russia. Out of the forty-nine members, only four supplied troops to the invasion force (United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and Denmark) (Paul, 2001).

All forty-nine countries part of the coalition of the willing had strong support for the war on terrorism, but as of 2006, support had decreased. Moreover, less than half of the United Kingdom and Germany supported the war, only forty-three percent ...