The Liberal Critique: American Empire

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Из курса от партнера Duke University

Understanding 9/11: Why 9/11 Happened & How Terrorism Affects Our World Today

27 оценки

Duke University

Understanding 9/11: Why 9/11 Happened & How Terrorism Affects Our World Today

27 оценки

This course will explore the forces that led to the 9/11 attacks and the policies the United States adopted in response. We will examine the phenomenon of modern terrorism, the development of the al Qai'da ideology, and the process by which individuals radicalize towards violence.

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Week 6: Counterterrorism Before 9/11

This week we’ll examine the three main US political philosophies that underlie the country’s approach to counterterrorism. We’ll look at the beginnings of the US response to this growing threat and how US agencies involved in counterterrorism efforts have adapted over time. Finally, we’ll examine how the US attempted to combat Osama bin Laden’s growing threat to US security.

The NeoCon Critique: American Weakness9:14

The Liberal Critique: American Empire7:53

The Realist Perspective8:11

Early Efforts to Address a Growing Threat11:47

Slow Change in the Agencies - Airport Security4:03

Slow Change in the Agencies - FBI, CIA, DOD12:35

Stopping Bin Laden Prior to 9/11 - Part 117:55

Stopping Bin Laden Prior to 9/11 - Part 211:41

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David Schanzer
Associate Professor of the Practice
Sanford School of Public Policy

The second view that I want to present

is a critique essentially liberal critique of the

neoconservative argument and although there are may articulate

critics I want to use the work of

Andrew Bekovich a professor from Boston University who

responds directly to Pot Hart's article and writes

his own called, The Real World War Four arguing that there was a world war that

was going on but it was not the United States versus

these forces emanating from the Islamic world, but that America in

essence had started this, second, this fourth conflict, global conflict by

the interventionism that it took place, essentially beginning in the 1980s.

and extending to the present day.

Berkovich's argument is that our desire to protect sources of

oil from the middle east led us to having large

scale intervention with heavily military presence in the

region as well as the desire, essentially, to shape the middle east.

in our own image as a, and as a place

for which we can, we could do business, especially the

importation of oil.

and this is the forces that really drove us to the moment of 9/11.

Bekovich points to the, a latter stage of

the Carter administration as the beginning of this trend.

Earlier in his Presidency, President Carter

had developed an energy policy based

on the principles of conservation, believing

that it was in the United State's

best interest, and almost a moral imperative for us to conserve more,

to not be gluttons of oil that had to be imported,

principally, from the middle east. An area with so many unreliable regimes.

however, that was very much rejected by the American people.

it led to plummeting in Carter's, popularity.

And Carter

then, later in his presidency, moved to

move US foreign policy, towards actually protecting

those sources of oil that Americans wanted

to continue, and had become so dependent on.

and he announced what became the Carter Doctrine, which he said that an attempt by

an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as

an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America.

And such an assault will be repelled

by any means necessary including military force.

so, this doctrine was announced and acted

upon and then was passed on, essentially, to President Reagan.

And, Reagan increased the level of military interventionism in a number

of ways in the middle east. First as we noted before, he

intervened in the Lebanese civil war. sending marines

ostensibly as peacekeepers. and then actually withdrawing them

after the terrorist attacks on them. he responded

with military forces. We also mentioned to the West Berlin

discothèque bombings by Khadafi and then

in a series of incidents. Spanning from 1984 to

1988 President Regan essentially announced that US

Naval carriers would ensure the flow of oil coming

from Kuwait through the Persian Gulf. the Iran Iraq war

was using, attacking these sort, different sources of oil, whether they

came from Iran or Iraq, as part of their strategic efforts to weaken, the enemy.

and the United States, ultimately got involved in a number of

different skirmishes which came to be known, as the Tanker Wars.

but in the end many foreign vessels

were actually given permission to fly US flags and then an attack on

them, from any party was seen therefore as an attack on the United States.

So the US, this was a huge increase in US Naval presence in the Persian Gulf.

Now, of course President Reagan gave way to

the first President Bush and in August 1990,

another cause for US intervention arose essentially Saddam Hussein's

armies invaded Kuwait which he believed was a historically a province of Iraq.

And should belong to it and, of course, giving him, wouldn't give him access to

huge additional sources of oil and, an immediate port from the Persian Gulf.

President

Bush said that this would not stand and, of course such began the first Gulf War.

Bush assembled a large array of allies. but this, led.

Was still principally an American operation.

And it led to,

over 100,000, US troops, coming into, Saudi Arabia.

Massing on the borders.

to eventually oust Saddam's army from Kuwait.

the war began in the early part of 1991 with an aerial bombardment which

was quickly followed by a large scale land campaign.

And of course this was

a successful effort, Saddam's army was essentially destroyed, and the

United States had a free shot to Baghdad to essentially topple

Saddam but chose not to take that route.

nonetheless large amounts of troops remained in Saudi Arabia.

as this picture, reflects.

and, Of course, this military action was seen as

a huge triumph for, the assertion of American power.

a personal triumph for President Bush, who is seen, surrounded here by, troops.

in the desert in Saudi Arabia.

I want to tell you just a quick story about this photo.

I have used this photo many times in some ways as an example

of US triumphalism and the, the US forces being in the Middle East and feeling

that they were fulfilling their mission. And being successful.

In doing the research for this video, I learned that

this was actually before the war where the President came

to visit the troops in Thanksgiving and President Bush was

not raising his hand in triumph but was actually tossing

souvenirs and trinkets, Presidential tie clips, out

to, the soldiers. What a soldier going into combat was going

to do with a presidential tie clip is another question, but the

story of the photo still remains, that here is an American

President coming into the Middle East, where surrounded by large bases

of huge troops, in response to the first Gulf War.

And continuing this trend throughout the 1980s, and into

the 90s, of increasing larger and larger US military presence.

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