Discuss - the Global War on Terror Has Increased Rather Than Reduced the Threat of Terrorism in the 21st Century

Since the Bush administration's policy of Global War on Terrorism reacted against the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in September 11, 2001, there are a lot of critics among the scholars and the wide public. Some argues that the governments participated in pursuing long –standing policy objectives; this reduced the civil liberties and infringed upon the human rights. Some scholars state the main problem is the Bush doctrine resulted in the resentment in the Arabs and Muslim worlds that arose the terrorist attacks. Others focused on the War on Iraq, which could be attributed to the anger of the Muslim countries that caused the later terrorism activities. Still other arguments mentioned the position of global media in stimulating the effect of terrorists. This essay tried to discuss in different ways in order to answer and respond to the topic: why the Bush government's campaign in The Global War on Terror against the 9/11 attacks has increased rather than reduced the threat of terrorism in the 21st Century.

The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terror or the War on Terrorism is a continued international military movement led by the United States of America with the support of other NATO and non-NATO countries. The movement was hold in 2001 with the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since the attacks after the September 11, other military operations have started; included the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War. The largest is the War in Iraq, beginning with a 2003 invasion. At the beginning; it was arisen from the action against al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations with the purpose of supporting them.

However, there are many criticism of this campaign. According to Van Evera (2006), he states that the Bush administration has concentrated all efforts on an offense against al Qaeda instead of focusing on three other critical fronts. Other three critical fronts include America homeland defensive, securing Weapons of Mass Destruction from purchasing by terrorists and relationships with the wider Muslim world. Nevertheless, the offensive against al Qaeda in Afghanistan was not fully succeeded because of internal problems. As a result the new government were threatened to destabilize the regime, and let al Qaeda set a presence in southern and eastern territory. The Bush administration even lost control in the fighting in Pakistan and finally failed to leave al Qaeda room in moving. Moreover, Van Evera(2006) mentioned that the Bush team exhausted energy in a sideshow in Iraq, failing to use resources required in eliminate al Qaeda. From Van Evera(2006), it displayed the report of The London –based International Institute For Strategic Studies(IISS)that the U.S invasion in Iraq contributed to al Qaeda's recruiting. That is to say, The War in Iraq strengthens the Muslim world against the United States.

Here again in the view of point of Cordesman(2006,p102-104),