Why has the United States become more anti-terrorist in the post-9/11 era?

The United States is about to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the "9·11" terrorist attacks, and the US military's war on terrorism in Afghanistan will also enter its 17th year. U.S. President Trump, who inherited the "mess" of counter-terrorism from his predecessors George W. Bush and Obama, took office and made counter-terrorism one of the core contents of his foreign policy.

However, judging from the current situation, the Trump administration has still not got rid of the United States’ long-standing bad anti-terrorism habit of focusing on military affairs and neglecting diplomacy. American experts believe that in the post-9/11 era, if this “flawed” anti-terrorism policy remains unchanged, the United States will have difficulty escaping from the cycle of “increasing resistance and increasing terrorism.”

Why 100,000 people could not defeat the Taliban in 2016

Matthew Houch, a senior researcher at the US think tank "International Policy Center" said that in the past few decades, US foreign policy has been a major issue The cornerstone is "military means first." All countries where the United States has intervened in their internal affairs, including Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, have experienced turmoil without exception.

While the United States is "destroying" militarily, it lacks follow-up diplomatic "reconstruction" efforts. As a result, countries such as Afghanistan and Libya have fallen into domestic turmoil for a long time.

Trump announced a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan on August 21, officially taking over the longest war in U.S. history. He said that an important pillar of the new strategy is the comprehensive integration of U.S. diplomacy and economy. and military power. But most of Trump's speech related to the military. He even bluntly stated that the United States' goal is to "kill terrorists." He only lightly expressed his openness to reaching a political solution that includes the Taliban in the future.

Bill Goodfellow, executive director of the International Policy Center, believes that the war in Afghanistan has lasted 16 years, and the U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan once exceeded 100,000, but it was unable to defeat the Taliban, so it once again sent military forces to Afghanistan. Investing limited military power will not bring about substantial changes. He said that political negotiations are the only possible way to stop the war, and the United States should focus all its energy on this approach.

The United States cannot complete the task of counter-terrorism alone

Marvin Weinbaum, director of the Pakistan Studies Project at the American think tank "Middle East Institute" and emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois, also believes that the United States is The role of diplomacy has unfortunately been greatly downplayed in the fight against terrorism.

Weinbaum cited the war in Afghanistan as an example. No matter what it says, the U.S. government has always believed that the Taliban has no intention of solving the Afghan problem through political means. He pointed out that the mistake in the US counter-terrorism policy is that the US does not realize that any sustainable military results are inseparable from the support of successful Afghan nation-building, and this can only be achieved through diplomatic means.

In addition, there is a serious shortage of U.S. ambassadors abroad. According to data provided by the Association of American Diplomats, as of September 6, only 19 of the 188 ambassadorial positions in the United States to other countries or international organizations have been officially appointed, and 28 have only been nominated, and most of them are Some nominations have only been submitted to Congress for approval in the past two months.

Richard Storr, a professor of political science at Rice University in the United States, believes that the shortage of ambassadors abroad will have a great impact on the implementation of counter-terrorism policies. The United States cannot complete its counter-terrorism mission alone. It needs to seek coordination and cooperation from other countries or organizations, and ambassadors abroad play an extremely important role in this process.

Proliferation of threats

Terrorist attacks occur frequently in the UK due to "big trees attracting wind"

The UK has been hit by multiple terrorist attacks this year, and the British police have also suffered setbacks in the past few months. Several terrorist attack plots. British experts believe that as a traditional political and economic power in Europe, the UK is inevitably a "big tree" and has long been the target of attacks by terrorist organizations.

Imran Awan, deputy director of the Center for Applied Criminology Research at Birmingham City University, previously said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that attacking "valuable attack targets" like the UK is a critical step for terrorists. "something worth celebrating".

He believes that the British "Brexit" referendum and the chain reactions it triggered, such as government changes and early elections, have attracted widespread attention from the international community, and this may be one of the reasons why the United Kingdom has become a target of terrorist attacks.

Since the beginning of this year, the United Kingdom once raised its terrorist threat level to the highest "critical" level. It is still at the second-highest "severe" level, which means that an attack is very likely to occur. The British counter-terrorism department said at the beginning of this year that the country was facing the most serious threat of terrorist attacks in 40 years.

The United Kingdom has repeatedly stated that the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States will continue. "The UK follows the United States in the war on terrorism, actively participates in military operations in Iraq and is ready to bomb the Islamic State at any time, which is why the UK has become a target." Awan said that the UK has positioned itself as a "close ally" of the US in Europe. After U.S. President Trump took office, British Prime Minister Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit him.

In addition, in at least three terrorist attacks in the UK this year, knives or cars were used as criminal tools, which also makes the anti-terrorism situation more severe.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been many terrorist attacks in the UK, causing serious casualties. In addition, the British police revealed at the beginning of this year that since June 2013, the police had successfully foiled 13 terrorist attack plots against the UK.

There is a long way to go to eliminate terrorism in Europe

In recent years, the scope of international terrorist activities has continued to expand. Terrorist attacks have occurred one after another in Europe, which was originally safe, and people are panicking. Although the extremist organization "Islamic State" has been losing ground in the Middle East recently, terrorist activities are still rampant in Europe. European experts and scholars believe that the root causes of the proliferation of terrorism have not been eradicated, terrorist attacks have become more difficult to prevent, and the world, especially Europe, still has a long way to go in the fight against terrorism.

Professor Pierre Fili of Sciences Po in Paris believes that the root of terrorism lies in the United States. "It was the all-out war launched by Bush in the Middle East that laid the foundation for the spread of terrorism today." .

Family problems, discrimination and lack of knowledge make it easy for young people to be seduced by the propaganda of terrorist organizations. The prominent social divisions in Europe also provide the soil for the infiltration of terrorist forces. How to effectively prevent And joint efforts to counter terrorism have become the most important problems for European countries. ?