Ten Years after 9/11, the U.S. May Not Be Safer

On Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. was attacked by terrorists. The symbols of U.S. economic power, the Twin Towers, collapsed in the attack. The symbol of U.S. military power, the Pentagon, was attacked; part of it collapsed, and more than 3,000 innocent citizens were killed. The Dow Jones plummeted by 14.3 percent, and the stock market lost $1.4 trillion. For 10 years, the U.S. government prioritized anti-terrorism as the essential task. In order to eliminate international terrorism and improve the security situation in the U.S., the U.S. government adopted some stunning actions, which exerted considerable pressure on U.S. citizens.

After 10 years, the U.S. has managed to achieve global anti-terrorism cooperation, overthrow the Taliban, collapsed al-Qaida and shoot bin Laden to death. There have been no more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

However, is the U.S. really safer now? Is the international society also safer now? The answer is not absolutely yes. The two costly anti-terrorism wars may engender more terrorism viruses.

Even though the U.S. collapsed al-Qaida via the Afghanistan War, the U.S.-built Karzai government doesn’t control the situation, and the Taliban is still active throughout Afghanistan. Meanwhile, violent attacks conspired by al-Qaida terrorists continue to occur. To immediately extricate the Afghanistan dilemma, the U.S. put the Taliban on the agenda of measuring progress in the Afghan government. But if the U.S. could not eradicate the Taliban through war, how can the U.S. change the Taliban through negotiation? How can the Taliban, which has managed to survive the fierce war, be friendly to the U.S.? The Afghan government, even with help from thousands of NATO soldiers, was unable to eliminate violent, anti-government activities. How can it control the situation after the withdrawal of the U.S. military? Who can promise that Afghanistan will not be the hotbed of anti-U.S. extremists after the U.S. withdrawal?

Even though the result of the Afghanistan War is not satisfying, this war is authorized by the U.N. and internationally supported. The Iraq War, however, is different. Before the Iraq War, there were anti-war protests lasting for several weeks in more than 600 cities around the world. In addition, the U.N. Security Council refused to authorize this war. Nevertheless, the U.S. avoided the U.N. Security Council and declared war, the “reason” for which was that the Saddam Hussein government produced weapons of mass destruction and supported international terrorism. At that time, Secretary of State Colin Powell confidently offered “the evidence” to the U.N. Security Council, but the fact proved afterward that the Iraq War is an illegal war without solid reasons or authorization. The debate on this war is still vehement, while the evidence is solid that the war has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens and the destruction of public facilities. The U.S. didn’t solve the problems that Saddam was unable to solve. The ethnic conflicts in Iraq are still severe. Religious conflicts are still fierce. Anti-government violence is still frequent. Now Iraq is once again an ally of the U.S. However, as it faces tons of post-war problems and complicated religious conflicts, the future of the Iraqi government is still unknown. Who can promise that the U.S.-Iraq relationship won’t change in the future?

If the question of whether the 10-year anti-terrorism project has brought U.S. safety or not is unsure, the fact is solid that the anti-terrorism situation of international society is more serious. Al-Qaida followers from Afghanistan spread around the world and are becoming more active because of the severe situation in the Middle East. They built al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and similar organizations and harbor the ability to organize terrorist attacks. On Aug. 26, the bomb attack of the U.N. building in Nigeria also demonstrated the obvious characteristics of a typical al-Qaida terrorist attack. Besides, in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, India and Indonesia, terrorist attacks happened frequently and therefore formed an active terrorist-attack area covering West Asia, North Africa, South Caucasus, Middle Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. These terrorist attacks have caused considerable deaths and financial loss.

Wars have exerted appreciable financial pressure on the U.S. This year, U.S. debt has reached $14 trillion. The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is close to 100 percent, which significantly exceeds the supposed international caution percent. Indeed, the U.S. economic crisis is not caused by wars but by the conflicts within economic structure, the governmental policy of releasing debt and the excessive consumption of citizens. Nevertheless, the substantial cost of wars makes the economic situation even worse. Compared to the economy in the U.S. 10 years ago, the current economy in the U.S. is more vulnerable. To support global strategies, the U.S. is suffering even more pressure, and as a result, the economic safety has caused more concerns.

Terrorism is the common army in this world, and anti-terrorism is the only choice for today’s society. But anti-terrorism should be comprehensive. If a country abuses armed force, it won’t help anti-terrorism but will propel terrorism. No double standard is allowed in anti-terrorism. If those who launch terrorist activities as “struggles for ethnic rights” can be absolved from laws, there will be more and more terrorists in international society.

The U.S. has destroyed two anti-U.S. regimes through wars, which enables Americans to release their rage. However, these anti-terrorism activities have conveyed too many factors unrelated to anti-terrorism, such as consideration of domestic politics, competition between countries, oil and gas resource control and geopolitical strategies. These unrelated factors, to some extent, distract from the main goals of anti-terrorism and ignore the comprehensiveness of anti-terrorism.

Ten years after 9/11, the U.S may not be safer. Ten years after 9/11, the world will be more unstable.

The author, Qu Xing, is the president of the China Institute of International Studies.