War on Terror: Worth it?

September 11, 2001: an otherwise normal day quickly turned into one that marked a consequential shift in modern geopolitics, a catalyst of a chain reaction of invasions and lies.

The deadliest attack on American soil took place that day. President George W. Bush was conducting a reading exercise in a school classroom, controversially choosing not to leave the class after receiving news of the catastrophe. Four commercial planes were hijacked and hit the World Trade Centres and the Pentagon. The next day, French newspaper Le Monde carried the headline, “We All are Americans”. The world was on the side of the US. How did things degrade to such an extent that a political scientist remarked, “Thank you, George W. Bush, for sucking the blood of terrorists” ?

The result? A Middle East less stable than ever, Afghanistan still in the hands of the Taliban, and billions of taxpayer money spent. In fact, shortly after the US’ departure from Iraq, the ISIS even formed a pseudo-state. The US, as expected, faced little problems in dismantling the regimes it targeted, but calamitously failed in rebuilding.

The Bush Administration continually reiterated its motive of eliminating all terrorists responsible for the three thousand lives lost that day. But not a single one ever halted to recall Gandhiji’s most invaluable lesson: of an eye for an eye making the whole world blind. True, maybe invading Afghanistan was indeed justifiable, for it had harboured terrorists. But the lack of diplomatic efforts and transparency made the bloodshed all the more vicious. The bombing campaigns led to vanished dreams, destroyed livelihoods and even innocent lives gone, resulting in only resurgent popularity of the Taliban. With them again in power, stronger than ever, who is there for help? Only quiet follows, for no one is ready to help this ‘terrorist state’.

But Iraq? There is no justification at all. In the fabricated justification of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein being in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the US and its coalition did not spare Iraq either. It was unbelievable. Through a string of falsehoods and baseless statements, a few powerful officeholders had destroyed Iraq, and with it, the Middle East. A kleptocracy being abruptly uprooted resulted in terrorist militias growing more powerful than ever, most notably the ISIS. After 3 trillion USD and 5,000 coalition deaths, it’s the Saddam days all over again without a hint of progress or hope. So much for President Bush and his ‘Mission Accomplished’.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and so many Ivy-League educated personalities, each with extensive experience in governance beforehand, could not deal with ragtag terrorists. True, 9/11 was attack on American soil, but the maniacal quest for exacting revenge cost not just the United States of America; the world still feels the effects. The War on Terror, in the most lenient of judgements, was aspirin, not the cure.

And I, therefore, denounce this War on Terrorism as a catastrophic failure with the consequences vastly outnumbering the aspirin-like respite.