The War on Terror, also known as the
Global War on Terrorism (
GWOT) is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign which started as a result of the
11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the
United States. This resulted in an international military campaign to eliminate al-Qaeda and other militant organizations.
The United States and many other
NATO and non-NATO nations such as
Pakistan participate in the conflict.[1]
The phrase '
War on Terror' was first used by
U.S. President George W. Bush on
20 September 2001. The
Bush administration and the
Western media have since used the term to allege a global military, political, lawful, and conceptual struggle—targeting both organizations designated as terrorist and regimes accused of supporting them. It was typically used with a particular focus on countries supporting militant Islamists, including al-Qaeda and similar organizations.
Although the term is no longer officially used by the administration of U.S. President
Barack Obama (which instead uses the term
Overseas Contingency Operation), it is still commonly used by politicians, in the media and by some aspects of government officially, such as the United States' Global War on Terrorism
Service Medal.
The Iraq War began in
March 2003 with an air campaign, which was immediately followed by a
U.S.-led ground invasion. The Bush administration stated the invasion was the "serious consequences" spoken of in the
UNSC Resolution 1441. The Bush administration also stated the
Iraq war was part of the War on Terror, something later questioned or contested.
Baghdad, Iraq's capital city, fell in
April 2003 and
Saddam Hussein's government quickly dissolved. On 1 May
2003,
Bush announced that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.[85] However, an insurgency arose against the U.S.-led coalition and the newly developing
Iraqi military and post-Saddam government. The insurgency, which included al-Qaeda affiliated groups, led to far more coalition casualties than the invasion.
Other elements of the insurgency were led by fugitive members of
President Hussein's
Ba'ath regime, which included Iraqi nationalists and pan-Arabists. Many insurgency leaders are Islamists and claim to be fighting a religious war to reestablish the
Islamic Caliphate of centuries past.[86] Iraq's former president, Saddam Hussein was captured by
U.S. forces in
December 2003. He was executed in
2006.
In 2004, the insurgent forces grew stronger.
The US conducted attacks on insurgent strongholds in cities like
Najaf and
Fallujah.
In
January 2007,
President Bush presented a new strategy for
Operation Iraqi Freedom based upon counter-insurgency theories and tactics developed by
General David Petraeus. The Iraq War troop surge of
2007 was part of this "new way forward" and, along with US backing of
Sunni groups it had previously sought to defeat, has been credited with a widely recognized dramatic decrease in violence by up to 80%.
Criticism of the War on Terror addresses the issues, morality, efficiency, economics, and other questions surrounding the War on Terror and made against the phrase itself, calling it a misnomer. The notion of a "war" against "terrorism" has proven highly contentious, with critics charging that it has been exploited by participating governments to pursue long-standing policy / military objectives,[168] reduce civil liberties,[169] and infringe upon human rights. It is argued that the term war is not appropriate in this context (as in
War on Drugs), since there is no identifiable enemy, and that it is unlikely international terrorism can be brought to an end by military means.
Other critics, such as
Francis Fukuyama, note that "terrorism" is not an enemy, but a tactic; calling it a "war on terror", obscures differences between conflicts such as anti-occupation insurgents and international mujahideen. With a military presence in Iraq and
Afghanistan and its associated collateral damage
Shirley Williams maintains this increases resentment and terrorist threats against the
West. There is also perceived U.S. hypocrisy, media induced hysteria, and that differences in foreign and security policy have damaged
America's image in most of the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terrorism
- published: 26 Aug 2014
- views: 2332