Nick Steder

 

US Government

 

 

World Wide War on Terror

 

            Terrorism in the Middle Eastern countries has been a problem for sometime now.  Since recent attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, the United States began waging a war.  This war is not against a certain country or continent, but against terrorism beginning in Afghanistan and hopes to work its way around the world until terrorism has decreased to such a minimum that the world does not fear it as it does today.

           

            One cowardly act on September 11, 2001 changed they way United States citizens looked at the Middle East and terrorism.  This single event changed the way of the US government looks at terrorism.  After the attacks on the trade center towers, many leaders said this was an act of war upon the United States.  Most leaders will not let this act go and will do anything and everything in their power to retaliate against these terrorists and the countries that harbor them.  Colin Powell has gone so far as to threaten large-scale and long-term retaliation against terrorism-whether "it is legally correct or not".[I] 

 

            Intelligence gathered from the CIA before and after September 11 points all fingers at the Al Qaeda terrorist network for the destruction and chaos created in downtown Manhattan.  In early October, the US began to send aircraft carriers and planes to the middle east to start its war on terror, its first target, Afghanistan.  This is where the CIA and other intelligence agencies believe the Al Qaeda terrorist network is originated from.  After the initial bombing was done to all the larger terrorist camps in the country, using the power of congress, president Bush was able to send troops into Afghanistan.  They were here not only to fight the Al Qaeda terrorist group, but to bring down the Taliban because of ties between them and Al Qaeda.  The US was not only there to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, they were there to train and aide the Afghan rebels who have been fighting against the Taliban for many years.

 

            Now that the Taliban and most of the Al Qaeda network is gone from Afghanistan, the US has began to work its way on to its next supposed terrorist harboring country.  Many US officials believe that Iraq has close ties with the Al Qaeda network and has been aiding and hiding terrorist for years, not to mention the beliefs of weapons of mass destruction.  The US decided that the terrorist aiding regime of Saddam Hussein had to be dealt with accordingly.  The US was worried that if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that they may be sold to terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda.  The US decided that this was not and option, even though the many UN weapons inspections had been going on, they did not find anything linking them to having weapons of mass destruction.  The US thought otherwise, they had given them every chance to surrender their weapons or be taken care of with military force.  Now that Saddam is out of power, the US may rest better knowing that another terrorist aiding country is no longer being run by an “evil” dictator. 

 

            There are many that think that the destruction of the major terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda, and terrorist aiding countries such as Iraq will help stop terrorism completely.  Although it will help immensely in bringing terrorism to a minimum, it will not stop it completely.  There are many twisted individuals in the world that do not agree with something a country or state does or rules upon, or something they believe is wrong and will act with destructive force, such as a bomb. 

 

            The war on terror will never cease to exist, there will always be terrorism everywhere you go.  It is something that people will have to learn to live with and adjust accordingly.  Even though there will always be terrorism, it must not effect a citizens everyday life, because if it does, terrorism will always win.