Are we Winning: An Alternative View on the War on Terror

Its been Five years since 9/11 and yet much coverage is still devoted to 9/11 and the resulting War on Terror. The targeting of the Pentagon and the Twin Towers was no doubt a provocative act that shook this country to its very foundation. However I question much of the rhetoric that resulted and led to many policies and approaches which I believe have not made America safer and have instead only made the cultural divide between Islam and the West more pronounced.

With reference to the Op-ed recently published in the News Leader “Are we winning?,” my view is that we need to look seriously at whether the attack on Iraq was justified, when there was no clear link between Iraq and 9/11. The huge expense of deploying troops to these countries has meant that we don’t have money to address both the root cause of not just terrorism (which is the same with all terrorism poverty and marginalization) but global resentment of the USA and its policies on the external front. Internally that $300 billion could have gone a long way to make America’s airports, ports and railways as safe as they possibly can be.

In terms of winning the war we should also consider the possibility that there’s actually more serious issues that threaten civilization than Islamic extremism and terrorism. People in Springfield seem very conscious of the War on Terror as a threat to their way of life, but when the debate about the coal power plant came and went residents voted for the status quo by passing a bond issue to fund another big coal power plant. This is understandable as most people do not see renewable energy sources as viable alternatives to fossil fuels. Yet it must have been lost on most folks who voted for this bond issue, that many scientists now say that the greatest challenge to humanity is not terrorism but Global Climate Change. One can only wonder how rapidly renewables could have become part of a viable national energy strategy to fight Global Climate Change, had the 300 billion spent on Iraq been instead spent on wind, solar, bio-fuels and conservation.

Note: I just sent the content below to the local newspaper where I am currently staying: The Springfield Newsleader.