The Challenge of Terrorism and War on Terror: Chinese Response
US Response (WoT) and its Impact: In response to 9/11, the WoT was announced as the American government and the global media, under its influence, labeled the 9/11 incident as not just an act of terrorism and violence but simply an “attack” on America. By implication, the whole strategy was designed around war craft and military actions while the political aspect of the situation was entirely ignored . The action has set a precedence under which any ‘powerful’ can use the pretext of ‘terrorism’ to suppress those who, in its view, can be a threat to its ambitions.
Killing OBL, eliminating Al-Qaeda, overthrowing the Taliban regime and making Taliban ineffective and absolutely powerless were declared as the important targets of the response (i.e. WoT) for which the US has used all its political, military and economic powers. Europe also immediately joined the campaign, and with the passage of time, the war has been extended to Pakistan while Iraq was also invaded in 2003, though on somewhat a different pretext i.e. WMD.
War is a phenomenon where the warring parties target annihilating each other, or at least making the other so weak and ineffective that it cannot pose any threat to it in future, and could be forced to observe the conditions posed by the victorious. In this backdrop, an overview based on the ten-year experience of WoT would help understand the costs the US and its allies have paid, and the extent of their success in annihilating their enemy or making it ineffective. In doing so, it needs to be kept in view that war affects all aspects of life, and its effect goes on for generations. The WoT is still going on and it is difficult to predict, when and in what shape it might end, and so the amount of damages it will finally cause to the involved parties. Nevertheless the following assessment of the human, political and economic burden that the US has borne so far and its achievements therein, would help in evaluating the strategy of war as a response to terrorism as well as in painting a likely future scenario keeping in view the Chinese Approach towards it.