War on Terror mistakes explained
There are very few occasions in my generation that really ask the question of “Where were you when this event happened?” For me, a Generation Y kid born in 1985 (not a Millennial, I refuse to say that), that moment for me was the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. It’s hard to even believe that its been almost 14 years since that tragic event happened, but I still remember nearly every moment of the day.
It was during my study hall period in my period in high school when the attendance girl ran in and told my teacher what was going on. I was writing lyrics for songs to pass the time instead of studying, as usual, and study hall teacher — an uptight home economics teacher — told us to stand up right away and follow her down the hall where one of the classrooms had a television hooked up to cable. We all sat down with very limited knowledge of what was going on… something about a plane crash in New York City. The rush to get us all in the room to watch the TV made me think it was probably bigger than just a regular plane crash. Getting to watch TV in school was pretty rare unless it was a movie when the teacher had to play something relating to the material.
At that moment, I thought of how my Father would tell me about how he was sitting in school when the loudspeaker in his classroom interrupted class with his Principal announcing that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. His teacher began to cry because he was a very loved President. My teacher and the teacher whose room we were in were whispering to each other before turning on the TV. My teacher let out a gasp mid-conversation, which furthered my anxiety that something really bad is going on. All of us were looking at each other with confused and worried looks… and that’s when they turned the TV on.
Silence. The room was quiet, and all you could hear was the disbelief and speculation in the broadcasters voices. Everyone in the room looked up at the screen in utter horror as it was becoming more and more obvious that the United States of America was under attack.
The rest of the day is common knowledge, so I won’t go into posting photos of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon being attacked, or the heroes of United 93 that rose up and sacrificed their lives to save many more. What I want to get to is how our anger and the anger of our Government went from good intentions to a baffling amount of mistakes and misdirected hostility that has led us to the world we live in today. The moment that “War on Terror” was declared was the moment that we began to make some good things happen, but ultimately lead to significant mistakes that we are still dealing with to this very day.
September 20, 2001 – The phrase “War on Terror” was first officially used.
The problem with this term, like the term “War on Drugs,” is that it’s an umbrella term for something that could never be won no matter how many bombs you drop, wars you wage, or money you spend. Terrorism is something that can’t be stopped. As long as people are willing to die for their beliefs and think it’s for a cause that supports their belief system, it will never end.
Think about it like you’re an unbiased observer looking in… like an alien viewing humans:
Each side fights battles against each other. To one side, a person that gives their life for the cause is a hero, but to the other side, they’re a terrorist or criminal. When you have two sides that look at each other like the other looks at them, there is no middle ground. The War on Terror waged by America is the same as the Jihad waged against America. Both sides will never stop fighting, and no one will ever come out the victor.
October 26, 2001 – Congress pass the Patriot Act this allows search and electronic surveillance powers of federal agencies while investigating persons suspected of terrorism.
The Patriot Act gave federal agencies the power to spy on the citizens of America with no warrants. This massive and controversial act was passed a little over a month after the attacks of 9/11 happened, and it seems a bit premature to pass something so huge in such a short period of time. The Patriot Act is 363 pages and 57,896 words long, and I’m pretty sure that no one in Congress or the Senate actually read the damn thing.
Another thing: The Patriot Act was written before 9/11, and used the fear of another potential attack to push it through legislation so quickly. It was meant for federal agencies to prevent another major attack on the homeland, which seemed like a good idea at the time. It probably prevented a bunch of attacks, right? Well…
FBI agents can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Thursday that could complicate efforts to keep key parts of the law operating.
Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations. (Via)
Yeah, the Patriot Act really hasn’t helped prevent anything, but what it has done is snoop into every American’s privacy for over a decade. We all joked about how to Government was listening in to our calls and invading our computers, but it turned out to be true, and now everyone is a little more cautious because of that one guy. What’s his name? Edward Snowden.
February 5 – March 20, 2001 — Colin Powell addressed a plenary session of the United Nations Security Council, stating categorically that Saddam Hussein was working to obtain key components to produce nuclear weapons. The Iraq War begins. President George W. Bush refers to it as “the central front in the War on Terror.”
The initial war against Afghanistan was a good idea because it started off as a means to find Osama Bin Laden, who was the mastermind behind the event of 9/11 and many other awful attacks. But, the blunders in Tora Bora and other mistakes led to the war in Afghanistan being the longest and one of the most expensive wars in American history. This led to nothing but lives being lost and time being wasted on a fumbled attempt to find Bin Laden. Thus began the Iraq War, which was based on false information from an informant nicknamed “Curveball” that turned out to be nothing but fabrications and lies. The Iraq War, which is largely what put us in the predicament the entire world is dealing with now, has come with a lot of repercussions. Here are some mistakes that came out of that whole debacle that we’re all still paying for:
- Total losses of troops, contractors, security forces: 25,286
- Total estimated civilian losses as of 2009: Over 110,000
- Law and order was not given sufficient attention in the pre-war planning. This failed to provide a police system to provide security to the Iraqi citizenry and to instill a sense of trust in our Army.
- The issue of detainees. There was really no clear guidance on the categorization of them.
- The flaws in collecting intelligence.
- Torture conducted to get false intelligence and lead to an even worse portrayal of America on the world stage.
- President George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing.” The fact is, those countries had less than 50 people in there. There really was not a coalition other than the United Kingdom. We went in by ourselves because most countries didn’t understand using bad information and using 9/11 as a pivot point to invade Iraq.
- The Civil war and guerilla war that broke out after the ground war “ended.” Mission NOT accomplished
- America’s entrance and exit in Iraq caused the formation of ISIS that spread like a virus throughout Syria and Iraq. It is now one of the most terrifying groups of extremists on the planet that has recently join with Boko Haram. This group has been recruiting people from all over the world doing heinous acts like mass murder, sex slavery, beheadings, genocide, burning people alive, kidnappings for ransom that still result in executions.
- The over $1.7 trillion dollars it costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention attacks in Syria and other areas trying to defeat ISIS.
These early decisions made in the wake of 9/11 have caused a ripple effect that has been felt in every corner of the Earth. All this money spent on war could’ve been spent on scientific discovery, alternative energy, helping the poor, helping veterans and their families, rebuilding our infrastructure, increasing NASA’s piddly budget ($17.6 billion as of 2014), medical advancement, and any number of other things that can result in focusing on the future instead of fighting wars that we’ve been repeating for thousands of years. I know that the horrific events that happened on 9/11 completely deserved a response, but how about thinking of it as a game of chess: You must think many steps ahead in the game and take your time. Why? Because people can and will die if you make the wrong moves.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com