Has America won the war against terrorism?

Question:

Has United States win the war on terror Discuss?
 

Terrorism has been a critical issue in the current social environment. There have been several terrorist activities noticed all across the world, but that did not raise an alarm among the major activist countries before 9/11 attack. The terrorist attack of 9/11 on the World Trade Centre in the United States of America changed the view of World Terrorism.  The active mission against terrorism began in the year 2001 that divided the entire world into two groups known as terrorist group and peacekeeping force (Schmid, 2016). The USA started the war against terrorism in the name of Peace Keeping Force and won several battles against the Al-Qaeda and several other terrorist groups. It can be said that the United States of America has won few battles, but the war against terrorism is still yet of its height to save the entire globe from the verge of brutal killing and sacrifice of life in the name of terror.

The paper has been developed to observe the current situation of terrorism all across the world and study how the American Army has succeeded in winning many battles. The primary aim of the paper is to judge whether these mere actions have led the Americans to win the war against terrorism. To answer the primary purpose of the paper, first of all, we must know what has been the result of the USA’s war against terrorism till now. A survey report shows that out of four American, three of them are not satisfied with the ongoing war against terrorism. Hence, we can say that America has not yet won the war against terrorism, and much more is to be seen regarding terrorism across the globe.

Terrorism is a much wider concept that the word itself that has led to injustice and bloodshed of ordinary people. Not only the ordinary citizens have lost their loving ones, but also thousand of terrorist has lost their life (Ekici, 2011). The war of the USA has weakened the Al-Qaeda group by killing the figureheads of its leadership. The US Army has stood against the terrorism and caused more damages to them as compared to the damages caused by them to the US government and ordinary people (Gleason, 2010). The damages caused to the USA were more tragic because it led to the loss of human life and financial downturn in the market. The attack of 9/11 resulted in the loss of more than 3000 life in the USA.

Recently, the USA has won many battles against the terrorist acts in different parts of the world. Though we can be a decline of many terrorist groups, new terrorist groups have raised with the death of old terrorist leaders. Hence, terrorism can be termed as a virus that keeps on spreading among the Islamic groups in the name of Allah. We have seen people killing children and raping women to create terror among the common people in the Islamic state (Hauter, 2014). Suicide bombing has been seen in the terrorist attacks in London, Syria, Istanbul, France and many other parts of the World after the decline of the Al-Qaeda group. Hence, it can be seen that the winning of few battles against Iraq and Afghanistan has not led the American win the war against terrorism. 

Terrorism is a much wider concept

When the people of America were asked about their views on the War against terrorism, around 71 percent people participating in the survey said that they had not won the war against terrorism. They have merely taken the revenge of 9/11 that will never get the world rid of terrorism (Ullman, 2006). Along with that, several other attacks can be evident all across the globe that has shaken the human society and global economy. Hence, the USA government must not only concern about terrorist attacks in its country but also take action against terrorism across the globe. Being the most powerful nation in the world, the USA has a responsibility to fight against terrorism and get the world free of terrorism.

A question was raised when the US government decided to pull back its forces from the Middle East due to a huge loss of men and resources after the death of Bin Laden and Saddam Husain (Eijkman, 2012). It is important to note that it was merely a win of battle and the real war on terrorism is yet to be seen. Pulling back of the US troops from the Middle East may lead to the growth of the terrorist groups. With the availability of technology and sophisticated weapons, the terrorist groups will be more powerful and disastrous for the entire world. Hence, it can be said that the Americans have not yet won the war against terrorism until the world gets free of the hilarious act of atrocities.

The answer to the question is significantly unknown as the terrorist activities of the Islamic State groups are dominating the news headlines for the past decade or so. The sudden ascendancy of new terrorist groups and terrorist activities in the European countries such as France and Denmark and the Middle East countries have raised the question about the safety of American civilians in the country and outside the country. Since the terrorist attack of 9/11 in 2001, the United States of America have launched counterterrorism strategy to demolish the roots of some terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS (Eadie, 2016). In the recent year, American President, Barack Obama asked American Congress to initiate authorization of using US military force against the war situation with ISIS. The US intelligence department has successfully identified many terrorist attack plans to stop the rampant move of the largest terrorist group ISIS. Though the US government has tried to take control of the dangerous activities of ISIS including al-Qaeda, the terrorist groups have successfully managed to raise funds and control terrorist activities in the different parts of the world (Marchington, 2013). At the same point in time, one must not forget that the momentum of terrorist activities has reduced in the past decade or so as the US intelligence group and military forces had effectively launched counterterrorism strategy to end the war against terrorism without any compromise. 

Unfortunately, the threats of terrorism loom large as the terrorist attacks in Paris, bombings in Beirut and London attack have demonstrated the extreme lethal power of the Islamic State groups. Nevertheless, America has achieved notable success in the fight against terrorism as US drone attacks and anti-terrorism counter-strikes have killed several mega-minds of the terrorist groups (Boeke, 2014). Still, the removal of the top heads does not seem to affect the mindset of the terrorist groups as they somehow managed to recuperate and keep coming at humanity launching assaults in a different way. The new recruits of the Islamic State group have been a worry for the world security. According to estimation in 2001, the identified members and affiliates of al-Qaeda were 300 around the world. In 2015, in Syria alone, the number of al-Qaeda members was recorded to be 30,000 (Mockaitis, 2015). The present condition of Afghanistan is a lot more sustainable due to the success story of US Military group. The US Military Force has forced the terrorist groups to step back from different parts of the country (Jenkins, 2008). On the other hand, in Syria, Iraq and some other Middle-East countries, terrorist activities are mounting up quite dramatically in the past couple of years.

The United State’s fight against terrorism is large scale tactics to stop the terrorist invasions on humanity. Somehow, some countries of the world are still helping the terrorist groups for their marginal benefits. The special military forces of US and air strikes have weakened the leadership structure of some terrorist groups (Hamilton, 2015). As a result, the groups have fallen apart. The most dominant part of the war against terrorism is the safety of civilians and security of the United Nations. The United States of America has launched campaigns in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan using unconventional tactics so that people and government can cooperate to construct a better future excluding terrorism. Most probably, the direction of securing national security is seemed to be the obvious motivation for the US government.

The threats of terrorism have remained upon the world civilians. The security of the lives of American civilians is also in doubt. There is some sustainable and considerable success to be notified against terrorism although the strengths of the Islamic State group such ISIS and al-Qaeda has been boosted. The struggle against terrorism has been seemed to be magnified as media, and social media have been utilised by the terrorist group to form terror among the world civilians. The attacks in different parts of the world and the claims of the attacks have increased the fear of terrorism among the social public of the US. Therefore, one can say that the US may have won the battle but not the war against terrorism. Reducing the attacks and increasing civilian’s security will not do the job alone. The Islamic State groups must have been removed from its roots to cut off any chances of terror attacks on humanity. Understandably, though, people of America are quite a concern about their safety as they have identified one of worst incident of terrorism. However, the entire population of the world including Americans will not give up against terrorism. The US government has taken all the necessary steps to stop the evil effect of terrorism to win the war within the near future.  

References

Boeke, S. (2014). Transitioning from Military Interventions to a Long-Term Counter-Terrorism Policy.Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies.

Eadie, P. (2016). Counter-terrorism, Smart Power and the United States. Glob Policy.

Eijkman, Q. (2012). Counter-Terrorism, Technology and Transparency: Reconsidering State Accountability. Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies.

Ekici, S. (2011). Counter terrorism in diverse communities. [Amsterdam]: IOS Press.

Gleason, J. (2010). A Poisson model of incidents of international terrorism in the United States.Terrorism, 4(1-4), pp.259-265.

Hamilton, L. (2015). To Win the War on Terror, We Must Win the War of Ideas. 

Hauter, B. (2014). Counter terrorism. Skyand, N.C.: Kivaki Press.

Jenkins, B. (2008). Aviation security in the United States. Terrorism and Political Violence, 10(3), pp.101-111.

Marchington, J. (2013). Counter terrorism. London: Brassey’s.