War On Terror Research Paper

How the United States Has Been and Is Fighting Terror

Matt Ruiter

Professor Buchanan

POS 111

25 November 2015

On September 11, 2001 the United States finally understood the reality of terrorism. As people watched The World Trade Center collapse, terrorists became more than a group of Muslims in the Middle East. After that fateful day, terrorism became a real threat, and the United States declared war on Terror. Since then, American soldiers have been sacrificing their lives to keep the United States free from many foreign terrorist groups. The background and history of the terrorist groups helps the United States understand the culture and motivation for the attacks. Therefore, since terrorism is ever present, the United States has

launched another anti-terrorism campaign in Iraq against a rising terrorist group. The changes to the military were more use of Special Forces, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles. Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, to fight the terrorist group forming there. The United States believed that the Iraqis were planning on making weapons of mass destruction. The Iraqi’s had gathered 550 tons of yellowcake uranium, which could be weaponized . Though this they never made a WMD, they had stockpiled amounts of poison gas, and distributed it to tribesmen to use in case of an attack. On the 20th of March, 2003, U.S. troops began invading Iraq. By using ground forces, artillery, and amphibious attacks, Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, which was ruled by Saddam Hussein for the past 24 years, fell on April 9th, 2003. This brought the invasion of Iraq to an end. Though there were various other small uprisings, the largest part of the War on Terror was

The use of Private Military Companies (PMCs), Special Forces, as well as declaring war on these terrorists, all have been proposed. PMCs would be very effective since they are specially trained, and have the funding and equipment needed. They would be able to go in, neutralize the threats, and train the local people how to defend themselves and keep these groups from rising again. However, since the U.S. would authorize these companies to go in, they would be to blame if anything went wrong, or later retaliate would be aimed at the government. Also, PMCs are extremely expensive, since their training and equipment are top notch. Many problems arise if the United States put its own military on the ground. However, the main factor that keeps President Obama from putting boots on the ground, is the Rules of Engagement limit what the military can and can’t do. Even if the President declared war against ISIS, many actions are limited and therefore ineffective. All of these have their pros and cons, but so far, Congress believes that the cons far outweigh the