US War on Terror inspires more terror
RTPublished: 08 September, 2011, 12:21
As the US prepares to mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, the results of the huge backlash it triggered are under scrutiny. A decade of military campaigns overseas has been accompanied by headlines of torture, secret prisons and civilian deaths.
*One of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history has ushered in a decade of anti-terror campaigns across the globe. But are America and the world now a safer place 10 years on?
The most recent 9/11 Commission Report Card gives aviation security in the US the worst grade an F. As for terrorists, experts say the methods used to fight them have spawned even more extremism.
Torture and the abuses, which werent just in Abu Ghraib or in Guantanamo, which were sanctioned at the highest level, occurred in all theaters, and that has significantly set us back since 9/11 in trying to defeat terrorism, says Matthew Alexander, an interrogator in Iraq and author of Kill or Capture.
Following 9/11, America did not just go after the perpetrators. It unleashed a campaign on a nation that had nothing to do with the attack.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died since the US invasion in 2003. Americas decade-long campaign on terror has created a new phenomenon: war without borders. And, as many say, without rules.
The torture, rape and murder that took place at the US-run prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, as well as other US prisons overseas, brought global condemnation. But key decision-makers in the Bush administration say what they did was in the best interest of their country and they would do the same again.
In his recent interview, Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States in George W. Bushs administration from 2001-2009, did not hesitate to confirm this stance.
NBC News:Even though people call it torture, you think it should still be a tool?
Cheney:Yes.
I have felt for some time that it is right to catch and try criminal terrorists in the courts but at the same time we need to look at what creates terrorist
RTPublished: 08 September, 2011, 12:21
As the US prepares to mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, the results of the huge backlash it triggered are under scrutiny. A decade of military campaigns overseas has been accompanied by headlines of torture, secret prisons and civilian deaths.
*One of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history has ushered in a decade of anti-terror campaigns across the globe. But are America and the world now a safer place 10 years on?
The most recent 9/11 Commission Report Card gives aviation security in the US the worst grade an F. As for terrorists, experts say the methods used to fight them have spawned even more extremism.
Torture and the abuses, which werent just in Abu Ghraib or in Guantanamo, which were sanctioned at the highest level, occurred in all theaters, and that has significantly set us back since 9/11 in trying to defeat terrorism, says Matthew Alexander, an interrogator in Iraq and author of Kill or Capture.
Following 9/11, America did not just go after the perpetrators. It unleashed a campaign on a nation that had nothing to do with the attack.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died since the US invasion in 2003. Americas decade-long campaign on terror has created a new phenomenon: war without borders. And, as many say, without rules.
The torture, rape and murder that took place at the US-run prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, as well as other US prisons overseas, brought global condemnation. But key decision-makers in the Bush administration say what they did was in the best interest of their country and they would do the same again.
In his recent interview, Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States in George W. Bushs administration from 2001-2009, did not hesitate to confirm this stance.
NBC News:Even though people call it torture, you think it should still be a tool?
Cheney:Yes.
I have felt for some time that it is right to catch and try criminal terrorists in the courts but at the same time we need to look at what creates terrorist