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President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney forge a partnership during an era
marked by devastating terror attacks, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and financial collapse
The Rise of Terrorism
Term “terrorism” was used first during French Revolution to describe actions of radical Jacobins against French government.
United States experienced terrorism for many years, these included bombing of marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, explosion that brought down American Airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, bombing of American Embassies in 1988 and the assault on U.S. naval vesselCole in 2000.
The unprecedented growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. The transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to
On September 11, 2001, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked and flew airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks.
Concerns about US national security resulted in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the signing of the USA Patriot Act into law. These developments sparked a debate over constitutional rights and protections, and the proper balance between security and liberty in a democracy.
The administration of President George W. Bush declared a Global War on Terror and sent troops to Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban regime was providing safe haven to al-Qaeda, and to Iraq, where Saddam Hussein purportedly was harboring weapons of mass destruction.
The War on Terrorism
Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon, government intelligence indicated, had been planned and orchestrated by Middle Eastern agents of Al Qaida. Leader, Osama Bin Laden, quickly became one of most notorious figures in world.
U.S. began sustained campaign of bombing against regime and sent in small numbers of ground troops to help a resistance organization overthrow the Afghan government. American forces rounded up several hundred people suspected of connections to Taliban and Al Qaeda in aftermath of fighting and moved these prisoners to facility at American base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Were among the first suspected terrorists to be handled with new and more draconian standards established by federal government in dealing with terrorism after September 11, 2001.
2002: Bin Laden is variously reported to be in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan - or dead.
2003: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf says bin Laden is probably alive and hiding in Afghanistan, but claims al-Qaeda is no longer an effective terrorist organisation.
2003: Bin Laden releases a series of statements including comments on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, threats of more attacks, and offers of a truce with the United States.
The Iraq War
For over a year Bush administration slowly built public case for invading Iraq. Case rested on 2 claims.
- Iraq was supporting terrorist groups that were hostile to U.S.
- Iraq either had or was developing what came to be known as “weapons of mass destruction”.
- Less central to arguments, was the charge that Hussein government was responsible for major violations of human rights.
- Except for last, none were true.
In March 2003 American and British troops invaded Iraq and quickly toppled Hussein regime. Hussein eventually was captured in December 2003. Of nearly 2000 American soldiers killed in Iraq as of September 2005, 1600 of them died after “Mission Accomplished” speech.
Support for war in U.S. steadily declined in months after first claim of victory
- Failure of invaders to find evidence of “weapons of mass destruction” was one blow to war’s credibility.
- Another blow came from reports of torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Bagdad and other sites.
2004: "I present a reconciliation initiative... to stop operations against all (European) countries if they promise not to be aggressive towards Muslims." (Al-Arabiya audiotape)
2008: Warns Europe of a "reckoning" after controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed published.
2010: Claims botched Christmas Day bombing of US airliner and threatens more strikes on US targets. Last message blames
industrial nations for climate change and the United States for refusing to sign up to the Kyoto protocol, while urging a US dollar boycott.
Bakos' personal contribution, detailed in the HBO documentary Manhunt, was leading a team in Iraq to the discovery and eventual capture of a highly funded al-Qaeda emissary, Hassan Ghul. The major breakthrough and interrogation uncovered that bin Laden had a single courier operating under the pseudonym of “Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.” The revelation ultimately led U.S. intelligence agencies to track the courier back to Osama’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama was killed by U.S. Navy Seals.
2011: Bin Laden is killed in a firefight with covert US forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, northeast of the capital Islamabad, Obama announces in a televised address.
Post Script: The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict. The U.S. became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition; the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion occurred as part of a declared war against international terrorism and its sponsors under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Invasion of Iraq was most visible of basic change in structure of American foreign policy under presidency of George W. Bush.
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