DCI Porter Goss, testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence--

Nine days after the horrendous bombing of the Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, President George Bush addressed the Joint Session of Congress and the American People told the watching public that "we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom.  Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.  Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done...I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it.  I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."

As a result of this war on terrorism, the United States government created the Department of Homeland Security, the most comprehensive reorganization of the Federal government in a half-century. It consolidates 22 agencies and 180,000 employees in a single agency dedicated to protecting Am

Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States leads an occupying force battling people who object to it, and possibly Colombia and the Philippines, where the United States has been helping local authorities deal with long-standing insurgencies, there appears to be little or no connection. Terrorism in the majority of countries covered by the Center report is indigenous, centered on long-standing disputes between governments and out groups, and these cases are affected marginally, if at all, by the War on Terrorism. Nor is it likely that, if the War on Terrorism ended tomorrow, its passing would alter either the status or the prospects of those long-standing disputes.

Where does this leave the War on Terrorism as a whole, asks Arnold.

Mahajan agrees with Scheurer that Osama bin Laden or members of his network statements contain no mention of any resentment of American democracy, freedom, or the role of women. Instead, they mention specific criticisms regarding American policy in the Middle East: the sanctions on Iraq, maintained largely by the U.S., which have killed over one million civilians; and U.S. military occupation of the Gulf and support for unsavory regimes serving the interests of American business before those of the people.

The bottom line, says Michael Scheuer, a CIA analyst who wrote the book Imperial Hubris under the name "anonymous," "While the 11 September attack was a human-economic calamity, Washington's failure to have its military ready for a crippling next-day attack on al-Qaeda turned it into catastrophe. It cost America its best - perhaps only - chance to deliver what is called a 'decapitation' operation, one with a chance to kill at a stroke many al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders" (24). Even if the leaders had survived, immediate American military strikes could have destroyed thousands of enemy soldiers.

It is ironic how bad things can bring positive results. As the number of larger terrorist horrors increase, such as the recent one in England, differences are occurring in world reactions. Economic activity is one of the best measures of psychological response to such events. After the New York attack, global markets took two months to return to their Sept. 10 levels. After the Madrid bombings in 2004, the Spanish market took one month to recover. After 9/11, the U.S. lost hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity. The 2002 Bali nightclub bombing had a similar impact on the Indonesian economy. However, a year later, after another Indonesian bombing, the market dropped only briefly, with little significant damage to the Indonesian economy. The bombings in Morocco and Turkey in 2003 similarly had little economic effect. After the Madrid attack, Spain grew faster than it had for three years (Zakaria).

Throughout his book, Scheurer makes the U.S.'s biggest mistake: It does not understand the mind of the enemy-a number-one priority in any war. This, if nothing else, will spell failure for America. In fact, the U.S. played right into the "bad guy's" hand. All along, the administration described Osama bin Laden as an anomaly, whose beliefs and tactics were supported by a minority of the Arab population. However, argues Scheurer, he is anything but an abnormality with farfetched ideals, bin Laden is the protector of the jihad or holy war against a country that helped him "wage

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sustained Operations--, Imperial Hubris, International Terrorism, Mueller III, Middle East, Iraq Afghanistan, Iraq Center, American People, Homeland Security, Noam Chomsky, war terrorism, bin laden, iraq afghanistan, september 11, national security, chomsky stated terrorism, american people, enemies justice, homeland security, billions dollars, indonesian economy, osama bin laden, department office counterterrorism, national security home,
Approximate Word count = 2261
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)