The terrorist attacks of 9/11 confronted Americans with the stark reality that an enemy named radical Islam views the United States as its bitter enemy and aggressively seeks to destroy America's institutions, its people, and its civilization.
An al Qaeda manifesto titled "Why We Fight America," which was made public in June 2002, expresses radical Islam's agenda with abundant clarity: "What happened to America [on 9/11] is something natural, an expected event for a country that uses terror, arrogant policy, and suppression against the nations and the peoples . . . America is the head of heresy in our modern world, and it leads an infidel democratic regime that is based upon separation of religion and state and on ruling the people by . . . laws that contradict the way of Allah. . . . [Therefore], we have the right to kill 4 million Americans - 2 million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons . . ."
Such is the mindset underlying the terrorist war that has been declared against America.
On September 17, 2002, President George W. Bush spelled out the United States' response to this terror, or what has become known as America's War on Terror:
"Defending our Nation against its enemies is the first and fundamental commitment of the Federal Government. . . . Enemies in the past needed great armies and great industrial capabilities to endanger America. Now, shadowy networks of individuals can bring great chaos and suffering to our shores for less than it costs to purchase a single tank. Terrorists are organized to penetrate open societies and to turn the power of modern technologies against us.
"To defeat this threat we must make use of every tool in our arsenal—military power, better homeland defenses, law enforcement, intelligence, and vigorous efforts to cut off terrorist financing. The war against terrorists of global reach is a global enterprise of uncertain duration. America will help nations that need our assistance in combating terror. And America will hold to account nations that are compromised by terror, including those who harbor terrorists— because the allies of terror are the enemies of civilization. The United States and countries cooperating with us must not allow the terrorists to develop new home bases. Together, we will seek to deny them sanctuary at every turn.
"The gravest danger our Nation faces lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to succeed. We will build defenses against ballistic missiles and other means of delivery. We will cooperate with other nations to deny, contain, and curtail our enemies' efforts to acquire dangerous technologies. And, as a matter of common sense and self-defense, America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed. We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. So we must be prepared to defeat our enemies' plans, using the best intelligence and proceeding with deliberation. History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act. In the new world we have entered, the only path to peace and security is the path of action. . . . The events of September 11, 2001, taught us that weak states, like Afghanistan, can pose as great a danger to our national interests as strong states."
This section of DiscoverTheNetworks examines the nature and goals of America's enemy in the War on Terror. Moreover, it discusses the United States' military and diplomatic achievements in that war; the many remaining challenges faced by the United States; the manner in which the mass media have depicted the events of the war; and the merits and demerits of the criticisms, both domestic and foreign, of how the U.S. has waged that war.
