"The Global War on Terror" -- 10 years in and counting

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

In exactly two months, the United States will observe the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the decade since those attacks, the U.S.A. has invaded and toppled the governments of two foreign states, captured and/or killed large numbers of suspected terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, changed domestic and military laws about surveillance and detention of suspected and/or captured terrorist suspects, engaged in controversial methods of interrogation that meet many definitions of the concept of torture, largely disrupted or broken up the central organization of Al Qaeda while seeing numerous independent or affiliated organizations spring up, operated a series of "black site" prisons and detention centers around the world, created an entire federal department dedicated to domestic security..and has not seen a successful attack on United States soil since the attacks of 2001 while terrorist attacks worldwide have continued with annual fluctuations.

The number of U.S. military dead in Iraq currently stands at almost 4500 and in Afghanistan it is over 1600. 10s of thousands more have been wounded. Estimates of Iraqi and Afghan dead since 2001 start at over 100,000 and climb rapidly depending upon who is doing the counting.

Meanwhile, the United States is as dependent as ever on oil imports from the Persian Gulf, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a main talking point of Islamic radicals and terrorist affiliates, is nowhere near a resolution, and the Arab Spring revolts have drawn into an uncertain summer with no good means of predicting the future.

For discussion: What have the U.S. and its allies to show for almost a decade of policy and action in the "Global War on Terror"?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Fairly sure Iran is not in that business or they would have destroyed Israel with a conventional missile assault decades ago. If it comes to war Iran's conventional arsenal is more than sufficient still to annihilate Israel. What's going on now is that the Arab countries have to choose between decadent Persia and siege mentality Israel with both aspiring for control of the region. The dictators seem to like Israel better.

Not really, no.

They were. Without so much as a cent going to fight terrorism in a titular global war on terrorism.