The Disastrous "War on Terror" by Kalina Decora

After the attack of 9/11 in 2001 organized by a terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda, the US decided to launch a global campaign on terror, called the “War on Terror”. The US launched the campaign in the name of attacking terrorism head on but their noble cause had severe negative consequences. While there are people who paint America's war against terror with them having the unquestionable moral high ground, they mounted what is closer to the trojan horse than a noble steed. The impact of the War on Terror was overwhelmingly negative, destabilizing economies, breaching international laws and causing untold suffering and misery.

In brief, the War on Terror was the war on Afghanistan and the war on Iraq. Initially, the US invaded Afghanistan when the Taliban, who were governing Afghanistan, refused to hand over members of Al-Qaeda who were seeking refuge there. Then the War in Iraq happened because Iraq allegedly developed weapons of mass destruction they could potentially use and the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein supported terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. In 2001, the US left Afghanistan after Biden called back all his troops to end the long war. Soon after the Taliban overran the capital and took control of the presidential palace. The Iraq war ended when Obama withdrew troops from Iraq, stating that only the Iraqis can fully comprehend their own politics and domestic dynamics. However, Prime Minister Maliki led to the growth of ISIS in Iraq with his bad run and Struan Stevenson, Former Member of the European Parliament, had argued that Maliki’s western backed rule was an utter disaster. The impacts the War on Terror had on the primary participants, the US, Afghanistan, and Iraq, are felt even today. Other than deaths both direct and indirect, the campaign affected the pockets of all the countries, disrupted peace and erupted Afghanistan and Iraq into a sectarian war. Furthermore the US fell off its moral high horse, stooping low to do extreme interrogations, extraordinary renditions and drone strikes.

Unquestionably, the War on Terror brought with it casualties in the millions and a surge of violence and hostility. In a video by Al Jazeera taking an in-depth dive into the War on Terror called “ What’s been the true impact of the so-called ‘war on terror’?”, it is said that there are more indirect deaths than combat fatalities. That alone should raise eyebrows. There being more indirect deaths than combat fatalities imply that there were more deaths unrelated to warfare than the death of the battlefield. While the innocence of man is always called into question, the most basic definition of innocent is “not guilty of a crime or an offense” and the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan were not guilty of the crimes committed by terrorist organizations like AL-Qaeda or an oppressive dictator like Saddam Hussein. According to Mohammed Hammad, a data journalist, 241,000 died directly from the invasion of Afghanistan with many more injured. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the people living in Afghanistan during the War on Terror. By launching a war on a country because their government sheltered a terrorist group, the regular inhabitants of the country had their lives ruined. Consequently, The War on Terror left about 5 million orphans in Iraq. The presence of a child’s parents in their life is a need, it is something that all children should be guaranteed, but to five million Iraqi children, having a parent will be seen more than a privilege. A desensitized view of war is a cruel thing to doom those civilians to. It is dehumanizing, likening the people, whose right to live is being stripped away to cattle. The War on Terror has ruined millions of lives; this is an impact that can never be overlooked and shrunk down to just the “usual” cost of war.

Additionally, there were the infamous drone strikes. It was deemed illegal, as it did not qualify as self-defense. Because the sovereignty of states that are not involved in the War on Terror are threatened by drone strikes and targeted killings do not qualify as self-defense under the UN’s eyes, the Obama approved drone strikes are in violation of international laws. It is morally questionable as the US issued drone strikes to more efficiently kill people using modern technology that Afghanistan and Iraq did not have access to. Essentially, the US is using their advantage as a first world country to kill more people in a third world country.

Other morally questionable actions of the US was “Extraordinary renditions”. Extraordinary rendition is essentially kidnapping a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect and send them over to another country that has less strict humanitarian regulations to get them “enhanced interrogated”. In summary, enhanced interrogations was just a polite way to refer to what is essentially methods of torture. Despite US ratification, the detained prisoners were subjected to torture to extract information from them. The US would essentially ship people suspected of being terrorists to countries where they’d get tortured and the US justified their actions by claiming it was for the greater good and combating terrorism. Prisoners suspected of having affiliations with terrorist organizations were sent to places like Guantanamo Detention camp to get tortured without trial. It is inhumane and unacceptable for people in this day and age to be locked up and denied their habeas corpus, the assessment of the legality of a prisoner’s detainment. To this day, the Guantanamo detention camp is still running and continues running indefinitely despite it clearly abusing human rights. This is simply not the actions of a nation that portrays itself as the Hollywood hero.

The War on Terror added to the hostility that was brewing in America towards Muslims and Arabs following the events of 9/11 with the opinions and favorability of Islam declining to 40% in 2001 to 30% in 2001. According to an article by the Watson Institute of Brown University called ‘Racial Profiling | Cost of War’, “Between 2000 and 2009, though the overall number of reported hate crime incidents decreased by over 18 percent, the percentage of hate crime incidents directed towards Muslims increased by over 500 percent.” And “The number of assaults against Muslims in the U.S. peaked at 127 in 2016.” Regular Muslims and Arabs were stereotyped based on the actions of Al-Qaeda despite not having any ties to them. They were the target of ignorant hostility, seen as the enemy of the livelihood and wellbeing of the United States by its inhabitants even if they were themselves inhabitants of the land. Concurrently, the politicians were not helping the cause either. By fueling the anger of the people, the politicians acquired support for the War on Terror, disguising their discriminatory hate as righteous. By creating an “us vs them” narrative, they feed into mob mentality and the mob points their pitchfork at innocent people. The United States aggravates hostility between them and that hostility sparks hate crimes that target innocent people with the only thing they are guilty of is their religion and race. The Homeland Security council and the TSA disproportionately affect Muslims who are singled out and searched invasively. The War on Terror caused there to be an increase in violence and hostility, taking the lives and safety of the people, fueling hostility between Arabs/Muslims and the US, a negative impact that cannot be ignored.

Evidently, the War on Terror impacted both Iraq and Afghanistan’s governments greatly. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled, Maliki wedged his sectarianism and ISIS rose against Maliki and negatively impacted Iraq. In Afghanistan, the Taliban were removed by the US but they came back with an insurgency in 2001, and in 2006 Afghanistan’s economy lay in tatters. The War on Terror robbed Afghanistan and Iraq of their security, leaving their stability to plunge into the chasms of chaos and corruption they have yet to crawl their way out of. Seemingly, those who planned the wars did not consider the difficulties of building up a government and neglected the sectarian violences of Iraq. One of the most important things to consider when building up a government, especially a democratic government, is the people of the nation. Unfortunately, the US didn’t have a good understanding of Iraqi politics and nuances so they neglected Iraq’s sectarian issues. One of the most disastrous outcomes of the War on Terror is the subsequent rise of ISIS in Iraq. When the US withdrew from Iraq, Nouri Al Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister in 2012, wedged his sectarianism, backed by Western forces. Maliki pushed an agenda that favored Shia Muslims over Sunni Muslims which made the Sunni Muslims turn to militias and form ISIS to push Maliki out of power but were not a positive impact on Iraq. America waged a war in Iraq, removed the dictator Saddam Hussein, and withdrew from Iraq with Prime Minister Maliki in charge. ISIS rebelled against Maliki and led Iraq down a road of severe destruction, crimes and violence.

Consequently, Arab countries were less inclined and enticed by democracy, ironic as the US claimed one motivator for the War on Terror is their hopes to spread democracy. In 2003, there was a survey conducted by Professor Telhami of the University of Maryland with Zogby International in 6 Arab countries (Morocco, UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) investigating the opinions of people on democracy. Their use of hard power hurt their soft power. Where they were presenting themselves as the friendly neighborhood capitalist democratic human-rights protecting Hollywood hero, their actions hurt that image. Because the US was unable to easily sway others to do what they wanted, they resorted to bullying which was not received well. “Only 4 percent of Saudis, 6 percent of Jordanians and Moroccans, and 13 percent of Egyptians said they had a favorable view of the United States. Majorities in most countries said their attitudes were shaped by American policies, rather than Arab values.” (Telhami, 2003). The survey demonstrates the failure of the US in their goal to democratize them and the ruin of their reputation in Arab countries. Because of the disastrous attempts the Bush administration made to set up a democratic government in Iraq, the Arab countries viewed democratizing governments as falling under American military power. For this reason, most Arab countries do not have a favorable view on the US. They believe that “ spreading Democracy” is just their excuse to get control of oil and expand their influence because influence is power. the innocent civilians of Afghanistan and Iraq were robbed of political stability and laid down the path for the rise of ISIS, the impact of which was even more instability. Hence, the US should not be entrusted with the responsibility of controlling the politics of countries outside their own.

The expenditure of the US on the Iraq and Afghanistan war was ghastly and the impacts on economies were largely negative. Unfortunately, Afghanistan’s economy was devastated from two decades of war and in 2006, following Iraq’s trajectory, the US faced insurgency from the Taliban. The cost of the Afghanistan war on the United States was a staggering 2.26 trillion dollars. Despite spending so much on reconstruction initiatives in Afghanistan, living in Afghanistan is less than bearable. For instance, Afghanistan possesses the world’s smallest formal economy with approximately 90% of Afghanistan’s population living off of less than only $2 according to President Ashraf. Moreover, according to Brown University, the cost of the Iraq war was 1.1 trillion dollars. Quite plainly, War is a costly business. Although America can afford to pay its toll, it should still not be encouraged. Surely, there are better uses for this amount of money than ending lives, desolating economies and destabilizing countries. For example, it would take 1.6 trillion dollars to cancel all student debt in the US. One can imagine, rather than spending such obscene amounts of money on bettering the lives of their own citizens, they should be prioritizing ending the lives of millions and leaving countless children orphaned? It is a shame how for the US one of the biggest negative impacts from the War on Terror was just the cost of the war, whereas for Afghanistan and Iraq, the biggest negative impacts were more like economic and political instability as well as sectarian violence.

The War on Terror has been criticized, rightfully, for a host of problems and problematic actions America allowed in with the campaign. Apart from the inevitable casualties of war, the War on Terror brought with it economic instability, trillions of dollars in debt, racism and racial profiling, an increase in opioid production, morally questionable actions like extraordinary renditions, the rise of ISIS, the Taliban insurgency, the decay of democracy in the middle east, left Afghanistan and Iraq unstable with violence alive on the streets, and scattering Al Qaeda network. Comparatively, the overwhelming negative impacts of the War on Terror marks it as a disaster. Given the presented information, one is led to question whether America’s influence upon the rest of the world and its desperate clawing reach for control of the Middle East is something to rejoice over or not. A trail of blood follows the arrogant footsteps of Lady Liberty as wanders lands far from home with her faithful dog, Democracy as her alibi.

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