The September 11th Attack on America - Essay Example

Title: THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACK ON AMERICA Name of student: Student number: Lecturer: Course: Date: On August 11th 2001 Al Qaeda carried out terrorist attack in USA. This led to the birth of war on terrorism in the world led by USA. Terrorism refers to the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. In order to understand the event that led to the 9/11 attack I shall look at the historical events, cultural issues as well as structural issues that led to the attack. Historical events judge US harshly because its foreign policy could be blamed for the attack. Cultural issues touches on culture which basically refers to people way of life and it is acquired through the life long processes of socialization. Culture as a complex whole is comprised of norms, values, attitudes, beliefs and cognitive mapping. People’s belief system is vital because it forms the foundation of their religion and in my discussion, Islamic religion will be a key factor of consideration. This is because many people believe that Islam religion should be held responsible for harboring and breeding terrorist although this is not the case. In addition I shall put across the role which Islam as a religion can play in winning war over terrorist. Historical events Terrorism dates back to the days of cold war and I will focus mainly on Afghanistan as a good case study. This is because Afghanistan was used as a battle field by the US and the soviet and the way the US carried out its mission to defeat Soviet has correlation with the 9/11 attack. Mamdani (2002) reports that in 1986 the US CIA chief advised the government to take three vital measures in order to defeat the soviet which included ‘providing Mujahideen with US advisors and US made stinger anti air missiles to shoot down the soviet planes, to expand Islamic guerilla war from Afghanistan to other soviet countries and recruiting Muslim from around the world to come and train in Pakistan and fight with the Afghan Mujahideen. ’. In the process Osama bin laden the brain behind the attack was recruited and trained by the US government as well as the Mujahideen. In 1989 Bin Laden formed Al Qaeda as a service center for Arab Afghans with their families with the resources provided by the US government. It is worth noting that all the groups the US trained shared three characteristics: terror tactics, embrace of holly war, and the use of fighters from across borders (Mandan, 2002) and the 9/11 attack was anchored on the same tactics. It is widely accepted that those people who took part in then actual attack were from different countries. Even today all the terror groups in the world still carry out their atrocities in the same manner in the name of jihad which represents a holly war among Muslims.] Cultural Issues As I had stated earlier, culture deals with Values as well as people’s beliefs which determine their religion and in this subsection I will look into these two facets of culture and the role they played in the events leading to 9/11 attack. To begin with the American society values are based on democracy and freedoms/civil liberties where the government is elected by people and the citizens enjoy their various freedoms as they are highlighted in the constitution. Many people who believe in these western values quickly blame those who do not share the same values and especially those societies which are believed to be promoting terrorism. Achcar (2002) notes that the crimes of September 11 could not be conceived as a reaction to any legitimately questionable aspect of U.S policy in Middle East or else where .They could only be the product of a visceral rejection of noblest ‘values’ of US and the West’. I agree with Achcer because every society is entitled to its own way of life which ensures its survival and a threat to a society survival is always counter attacked. In this respect the US government policies of democratizing other nations in the Middle East are bound to fail and be rejected by those societies because they are formulated from an ethnocentric point of view; that the mighty is always right. In addition, democracy is among the many ways of governing societies and it’s not the most appropriate way to do so although this does not in anyway justify the attack. Islam as a world religion also shares the blame on the 9/11 attack and I strongly believe that those who accuse it as a whole do not really understand Islam. This is because Islam as any other religion such as Christianity emphasizes on peace and harmony among men and women. Mamdani (2002) takes the discussion a notch higher by arguing that’ Islam and Christianity have in common a deeply messianic orientation, a sense of mission to civilize the world.’ Therefore we should not discard Islam as a terrorist religion because it has a role to play in civilizing its followers and the problem arises in the way the religion civilizes its followers either through persuasions or force. Jihad arises from the latter and basically means struggle for self preservation and self defense. The only link between Muslims and terrorism comes from those radical groups who use its teaching to spread terror in the world and they are the minorities. Ganor (2005) points out that ‘The members of Islamic radical terror groups are motivated by divine command and actually believe that God is sending them on their mission’. At this juncture I point out that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda carried out the attack on the promise that they were waging jihad ,a just war against the enemy ;America. In attacking America the radical and extremist wanted American government to feel the pinch in order to remove its forces in Arab and Muslim countries .This is a very dangerous way of dealing with a problem because it does not give the other party an option and at then same time two wrongs don’t make a right.. According to the Al Qaeda there’s nothing wrong they did in their own dangerous thinking and we should respect their decision because if we analyze it from a rational point of view as westerners then we are not going to understand the thinking process of ‘non rational ‘thinker’s. Mainstream Media One cannot finish an article on the attack without looking at the print and electronic media. This is because the media does represent a lot of the society values and over the years it has been used by both the west and the East in spreading propagandas which could have in one way or another contributed to the attack To begin with, the media is the mouth piece of society because it is being used as the main means of communication between the policy makers and the society. The 9/11 attack received huge media coverage and for a while the whole world forgot about other problems in the world and it was easier for the US government to sell its policies of war on terror to its citizen because by seeing the world trade center collapse Americans believed that their country was under siege. Achcar (2002), arguing along the same line says that “media coverage will be for sometime to come, cover up and justify new atrocities committed by the US and its allies in the guise of reprisal”. It is worth noting that media coverage has been a plus mark for the US president because it does the ground work for him and he is only left with the role of convincing the citizens that war on terrorism though it’s failing, is a justifiable cause. Terrorists on the other side use the media as a way of jostling and that is why now and then we keep seeing and hearing that a new tape by Osama Bin Laden has been released. In essence the terrorist group also uses the media as a way of inviting similar like minded Muslims to wake up and fight the enemy of Islam. Both parties in the war know that the media has a huge coverage and they can easily get the message across. In addition people all over thee world have used various media reports from the battle fields to assess the progress of war on terror and its true that it is being lost by the US because of not paying attention on how these groups are structured , aligned and function. Conclusion In conclusion the September 11th attack can be said to be a climax of various historical events that have broadened the gap between the westerners and the easterners. Culture did also play a great role in the attack and now it is high time we started paying attention to various cultural issues in the contemporary society’s today. The current war on terrorism cannot be won through military activities because killing and maiming people does not make them change their ideologies. Instead The US government should take time to understand the radical Muslims from an emic point of view and in so doing the relationship between them will improve and at the end terrorism will be tackled easily. This is because Muslims who do not value violence will have a chance of talking to the others and in the process motivate them to change their way of solving societal problems. References Boaz, G. (2005) The relationship between International and localized Terrorism, Published June 2005 Vol. 4, No.26 28 June 2005 Dale, A. (2003). The Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. New York, Prentice Hall Gilbert Achcar, The Crash of Barbarisms, Monthly Review; Sep 2002; 54, 4; Academic Research Library pg.17 J.W. Smith, WHY? The deeper history behind the September 11th terrorist attack on America, third edition, August, 2005, 15BN Mahmood Mamdani (2002).Good Muslim, bad Muslim: A political perspective on culture and terrorism American Anthropologist; Sep 2002; 104, 3; Academic Research Library pp. 766 Yassin, E. et al. (2004). Perspectives on 9/11. New York, McGraw-Hill Read More