Home ›› 16 Sep 2021 ›› Opinion
The US war on terror was likely doomed the day then-president George W Bush gave it that name, about a week after 9/11. Defeating an ideology with force is nigh impossible, but successive US administrations stubbornly refused to accept this. And so, over the past fortnight the commentariat has issued one much-deserved post-mortem after another on the US’ disastrous war on terror.
I’ve decided to take a more positive tack, and focus here on a potentially better tool for defeating terrorism: the soft power of civilian and political developments and initiatives that encourage understanding and connection and help calm troubled waters.
Let’s call these examples of “everyday counterterrorism”, as opposed to the militant and institutional counter-terrorism overseen by governments and international alliances.
Start with Afghanistan, where the past two decades saw major strides. Since 2001, real incomes have doubled (though, it should be said, the economic expansion still relies on external support); infant and child mortality have been cut 70 per cent, the world’s greatest improvement over this period; malnutrition, adolescent fertility and maternal mortality have been halved; and access to sanitation, drinking water and health care have improved dramatically.
Secondary school enrolment more than quadrupled and life expectancy has increased 10 years. Education and employment for women increased sharply, as did respect for ethnic and religious minorities, though these gains could by reversed under Taliban rule. I could go on, but it is clear that life in Afghanistan has inched closer to life in wealthier countries.
Yes, the withdrawal was a disaster, corruption was always rampant and, assuming they stick around, the Taliban are going to have to build government institutions almost from scratch. But the ultimate verdict on Afghans’ future will be decided in the months and years to come.
Though riven by violence, poverty and corruption, Iraq is technically a democracy, 18 years after the US launched a “shock and awe” campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. As the remaining US forces prepare to withdraw, Iraq ranks a full 10 places ahead of Turkey on the German Research Foundation’s latest Democracy Matrix. And as Iraq heads toward next month’s elections, considerable hope has swelled around the Tishreen movement that emerged during massive protests in December 2019.
As for the domestic fight against terrorism, the US has seen zero major attacks on its soil by Al Qaeda or ISIS since 9/11. In the last 20 years, in fact, more Americans have died at the hands of right-wing extremists (114) than Islamist extremists (107), according to the New America Foundation. The EU, on the other hand, for a long time suffered one violent Islamist attack after another: it lost 133 people in 2016 alone.
This may be because the US has more stringent border and aviation controls and enacted harsher laws, such as the Patriot Act and former president Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban”.
