9/12: Reacting to crime by war(s): International and internal impacts of 9/11

Abstract

This article critically analyses the responses by the US Government to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon giving attention to the belligerent policies initiated on 9/12. Its main argument is that more damage was done to the American position in the world by what was done in the name of security in reaction to the attacks than the attacks themselves. The conclusion reached is that the unlearned lesson of the Vietnam War helps us understand the failed military interventions and state-building operations as tragically enacted in Iraq and Afghanistan.