More handpicked essays just for you.
Impacts of the 9/11 terrorists attacks
Social and political changes after 9/11
Social and cultural effects of 9/11
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Impacts of the 9/11 terrorists attacks
From the perspective of the West, the war on terror can seem to be as never-ending as battling Hydra. For every terrorist leader struck down, three more arise from the dust to take his place, and themselves take positions of power in numerous countries. It’s difficult for Western powers to understand that it is the cutting down of that one leader that gives rise to the others. In the wake of 9/11, the American approach to the war on Terror has poured oil on what was once a small fire of fundamentalist fervour. This is not to say that fundamentalism did not have a public and influential role in the politics of many Middle Eastern states, but instead that the spectacle of 9/11 and the reaction provoked served to give a platform to fundamentalist rhetoric that could not have been easily attained otherwise. This rhetoric has fuelled into the spotlight Western conceptions of Islam and Arabs, while also reinforcing perceptions of Western attempts to subjugate Muslims.
Before 9/11 state support for al-Qaeda was arguably non-existent, there was no real state-supported terrorist infrastructure beside the Afghani’s role in propping of local Taliban groups . Regardless of this, the Middle East has seen state sovereignty pushed aside by American interests, and western governments support authoritarian and anti-democratic states that abuse human rights but claim an alliance with the West in the war on Terror. This irony cannot be lost to someone who sees the West claim that their actions are inspired by the desire to propagate freedom, but then commit the atrocities found in Abu Ghraib and across the region. The dominant argument now seems to be that the West is not serving the interests of the Middle Eastern people, but rather trying to su...
... middle of paper ...
...stine-Israel conflict felt the effects of 9/11 particularly acutely.
Works Cited
Kellner, Douglas. Media Spectacle and Insurrection. London: Continuum, 2012. Print.
Laub, Zachary. "Al-Qaeda in Iraq (a.k.a. Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria)." Council on Foreign Relations. Ed. Jonathan Masters. Council on Foreign Relations, 09 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Laub, Zachary. "The Taliban in Afghanistan." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Stone, Andrea. "Many in Islamic World Doubt Arabs behind 9/11." USA Today. USA Today, 27 Feb. 2002. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Telhami, Shibley. The World through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East. N.p.: Basic, 2011. Print.
"UN Casualty Figures for December, 2013." United Nations Iraq. United Nations, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.