Seven Years After: Nine Eleven

Priyath WIJEWARDENA

The world watched with horror live on TV the carnage at the World Trade Center New York on eleventh September 2001. The destruction was caused by the well known terrorist network Al-Qaeda, after meticulous planning.

The retaliation by the U.S. was swift, with major military victories in Afghanistan that crippled the organizations’ operational base while a surge of support by other nations gave strength to the U.S. cause. If the U.S. and her allies are to continue to win the War on Terror it must be successful in the political, economical and

If the U.S. and her allies are to continue to win the War on Terror it must be successful in the political, economical and military dimensions. Based on this multi dimension scale approach there exists a tug of war of victories between the allied nations and the global terror network of Al-Qaeda, which never seems to be fully terminated. At the beginning the U.S. scored a range of political and military victories.

 military dimensions. Based on this multi dimension scale approach there exists a tug of war of victories between the allied nations and the global terror network of Al-Qaeda, which never seems to be fully terminated.

At the beginning the U.S. scored a range of political and military victories. Politically the achievements ranged from enacting laws that helped the American Government to combat terrorism internally, such as the Patriotic Act, to obtaining unconditional support from countries, which included states that are allied to it and even countries that are known for anti Americanism.

Militarily the United States succeeded in removing Al-Qaeda and Taliban from Afghanistan, thus removing Al-Qaeda’s principle operational base, while arresting and terminating key Al-Qaeda leaders.

Economically, the U.S. has been successful in aiding Afghanistan rebuild itself, while at the same time giving economic benefits to Pakistan, which would become a key ally in the fight against terror.

In spite of the success that the U.S. enjoyed Al-Qaeda has also scored numerous gains. Militarily it has succeeded in decentralizing further its hereto loose organization, making it extremely difficult for U.S. and Western organizations to clamp down on it.

Trailing the terrorist is further attenuated by the lack of human intelligence within the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S. Politically the terrorist network has managed to make the U.S. over extend itself and inflate it’s response to the World Trade Center bombing.

The response of the U.S. has enabled Al-Qaeda to gain new supporters and isolate America from its previous strong base of international support. Al-Qaeda also has the advantage of having a support base which can never be sidelined from it, since their antagonism with the west has historical dimensions.

In answering the question ‘Who is winning the war on Terror?’ it must be noted that the U.S. and present Bush administration has vital interests in keeping Osama Bin Laden alive and maintaining the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, which means execution of policies against the terror network will be carried out to a certain limit.

The U.S. has scored politically due to the new doctrine of President Bush that consists of preemptive strikes against terrorist and hostile countries that have chemical and biological weapons.

At the same time President Bush assured the American public that America’s number one global position is maintained. While the President’s actions showed hostile forces that the U.S cannot be subjugated it also gave an ultimatum to all nations to join its coalition against Global Terror causing its allies and enemies to adhere to the American cause.

The Bush administration did not take into account the political nature of any regime whether democratic or dictatorial, forcing countries even like Iran to give support to the U.S. coalition.

At the same time NATO countries declared the attack against the U.S. to be an attack against all states in the legion and invoked Article Number 5 of the Washington Treaty, which stipulated that ‘an armed attack against one member to be an attack against all members.’ All countries of the coalition offered their support. Even the erstwhile enemy of the coalition, Russia, intensified its support.

Another political victory the U.S. scored was the additional powers gained by the security and Presidential apparatus. The treat of sub state actors having weapons of mass destruction allowed such laws to be promulgated, which permitted the stringent control of people’s movements, financial and technological transfer and foreigners use of U.S. know how both home and abroad.

One of the laws was the Patriot Act which allowed the indefinite detention of non citizen terrorists and the F.B.I. tapping of internet service providers and employees. As mentioned earlier while the U.S. scored these victories the Al-Qaeda terrorist network scored numerous political achievements, while allowing the U.S. to make fundamental mistakes.

The first among these was the U.S. failure to fully harness the international support it received from its key allies and the international community as a whole.

It did not use NATO or any other institution to fashion or implement a response. The U.S. felt strong enough to act on its own and so it did. By offering unconditional support the European nations were expecting to be consulted.

The shared interests in combating terrorism and the declared willingness of NATO to commit to such an end could have been used to transform international institutions into an effective means of pooling resources for a common purpose.

Thus the U.S. missed a golden opportunity. The second political advantage that Al-Qaeda gained was the over reaction of the U.S administration to the terrorist attack. After the September Eleven attack the U.S. declared a ‘War on Terror.’

This is a misguided strategy as a declaration of war is usually upon an entity than a tactic. Later the declaration was expanded to include a ‘Global War on Terror’ which is even a more nebulous term. If the administration had declared war on Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan there might have been some gauge for success.

Furthermore terrorist organizations want to be considered as soldiers at war with an enemy because of the legitimizing it bestows on the group. By declaring War on Terrorism and making Al-Qaeda the enemy number one the U.S. administration elevated it to a status it could not have deemed of.

The second major conflagration was the invasion of Iraq which caused a major insurgency in the country in which local and foreign fighters tried to oust the U.S from Iraq.

It has been argued that Iraq would be the next breeding ground for terrorists. The U.S. carried out the invasion without the sanction of the U.N., which together with the massive carnage taking place within Iraq, caused international horror and portrayed America as fighting a war against Islam.

A final political advantage that Al-Qaeda has is its strong base of support which cannot be countered, since their support for the organization stems from their hatred of not only U.S. policies but also of U.S. culture and civilization. In fact Bin Laden and his followers fall into a category called the Radical Islamists, which adopt a puritanical disposition and an orthodox social and political operatic.

Many of the grievances against the U.S. and the West are more historical than contemporary. Examples of such animosity include the historic duals in the Crusades, the memory of colonialism and the tensions of the Cold War. Economically and militarily the U.S. achieved some notable achievements. Militarily it destroyed Al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan and formed a lasting but shaky friendship with the Afghan government.

An economic achievement was reached when the international community pledged to rebuild Afghanistan so that it would case to be a bastion of international terrorism. The U.S. government also pledged to support Musharaf, the former Pakistani President against radical Islamic groups that support Bin Laden and the Taliban.

It has also rewarded him financially, politically and economically. Militarily the U.S. has managed to arrest and kill most of the senior and middle level officials of the Al-Qaeda organization, while those who are still free are mostly on the run and carry out mainly survival than attack operations.

Yet a difficulty in assessing the success of these operations is that Al-Qaeda is a very loose organization of cells and terrorist affiliated groups. In fact it is more of an ideology than an organization. In response to the attack on its centralized infrastructure the movement has decentralized even further and now consists of an eclectic range of groups, cells, and individuals making counter terrorism extremely difficult.

Counter intelligence is further hampered by the decline of human means of gaining intelligence as opposed to satellite picture, which shrank by 20 per cent in the early and mid 1990s. Most of the younger people within the CIA left for the private sector. The agency is therefore in critical need of an expanded corps of case officers and analysts who can speak the Middle Eastern languages and understand the terrorists.

The advantage that the U.S. enjoyed in removing the Taliban from Afghanistan was only short lived as the organization has regrouped in Pakistan. The former Pakistani President Musharaf, handled the organization as a strategic issue and not as a danger and menace to the Pakistani society.

The former President’s approach allowed the Taliban to flourish to a point that it is now the biggest threat to law and order in that country. The Taliban has managed to establish autonomous regions which are outside the control of the federal government and has established its stringent formula of Islam on the society that it governs.

Another edge that the Al-Qaeda has is that the network offers the U.S. administration and the state several advantages; therefore its destruction is never actively sought by the Bush administration. Further the entire War on Terrorism was used as a device for Anglo American global domination.

The U.S was the first to create the terrorist outfit known as Mujahedin, which was later transformed into what is known as Al-Qaeda. It was established to counter Afghan government, known as the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which was a communist government supported by the Soviet Union.

Osama Bin Laden and his family were deeply involved with the Mujahedin as seen by the multi billion dollar cave construction (Tora Bora Complex). By 1988 Bin Laden with C.I.A. approval established Al_Qaeda out the Mujahedin, since the Mujahedin had been transformed into an international terrorist organization with a highly sophisticated organizational and financial apparatus.

Due to the stagnation in oil production the U.S has sought to control the vital energy reserves. To secure this situation the U.S. needed to expand the number of bases. New bases were sought in Middle East, South East Europe, Latin America and South East Asia. The War on Terror was used to implement pan America as it justified the Western Crusade for expansions of power and profit.

The September Eleven War plans targeted key strategic areas with energy reserves. The U.S initially had the advantage over the Al-Qaeda organization. It had the international backing and full scope of legal codes to mitigate the terrorist group.

Yet Al-Qaeda managed to decentralize further strengthening its security position. The U.S. also overreacted, giving the terrorist network more status and support. Finally the U.S. never fully wanted to destroy the Al-Qaeda network since it had advantages in its survival. These reasons prove that the Al-Qaeda terrorist network cannot be fully subjugated.