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Ah, of course. The deal trump brokered with the Taliban to only attack afghan targets and be left alone in return. I remember that. One of the key parts of the taliban conquering Afghanistan.
They were not to seize any land controlled by the Afghan government, and they did not after Trump's warning until Joe became president. Then they seized land, when Joe did not respond and concealed that fact from the American public the Taliban, predictably, seized more.
Acts of terrorism increased because the region was destabilized and became a breeding ground for terrorist recruitment. The war against terrorists ended up creating more terrorists. After a twenty-year US occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban has been growing in numbers and strength in recent years and has been responsible for a surge in terrorism in Pakistan. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, there was no ISIS. But after the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the collapse of the Iraqi government, ISIS and several other new terror groups emerged. Unfortunately, the end result of Israel's war against Hamas will be no different.
The US invaded Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda. The Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, so they also became a target.
Afghanistan, a known training ground and safe haven for the terrorist group [al-Qaeda] led by Osama bin Laden, became the initial focus of military efforts to strike back. That distant, land-locked, mountainous country presented great challenges to planners and operators. The U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy overcame those obstacles to project power halfway across the globe and conduct an offensive, in concert with Afghan allies, which drove al-Qaeda into retreat and quickly toppled the Taliban regime that supported the terrorists.
War with al-Qaeda meant war with its host the Taliban who had gained control of most of Afghanistan in the 1990s. In October 2001, U.S. military forces began a campaign against both groups. With the help of various anti-Taliban militias, American troops fought to remove the Taliban from power, destroy al-Qaeda, find bin Laden, and preclude terrorists from using Afghanistan as a refuge. Afghanistan, therefore, would be the first conflict in the decades-long Global War on Terrorism.
From Afghanistan, bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network planned and set in motion the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. He wanted to draw the United States into a protracted and unwinnable war in Afghanistan, much as the Soviets had been... the Taliban likely did not know of these plans.
Within hours after the World Trade Center’s twin towers fell in New York City, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had planned and orchestrated the attacks from their sanctuary in Afghanistan. Bush and his cabinet then learned that the Taliban was hosting and protecting bin Laden. Going to war with al-Qaeda would require fighting the Taliban.
Hamas used the same strategy as Bin Laden. They knew going into the terror attack on October 7th that Israel would respond with overwhelming force in Gaza and get caught up in a long, unwinnable war. It was a trap, and Israel fell right into it.
I didn't say the war in Iraq was against al Qaeda, I said the US did the same in Iraq; bombed, invaded, and occupied the country.
From northwest Africa to southeast Asia, al-Qa`ida has maintained a global movement of some two dozen local networks. Among the movement’s estimated 20,000 or so men-at-arms are some 3,500-5,000 hardcore loyalists in Syria belonging to al-Qa`ida’s main stalking horse in that country, Hurras al-Din. Longstanding al-Qa`ida loyalists like al-Shabaab in Somalia and al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen each command approximately 7,000 men, with several hundred associated with al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). There are estimated to be at least 400-600 al-Qa`ida fighters in Afghanistan.
Evidence that al-Qa`ida and its franchises have not abandoned prospects of reinvigorating their campaign of international terrorism with some new, dramatic, and spectacular attack may be deduced from the reports that twice this past year, al-Shabaab operatives have been arrested while taking flying lessons: one in 2019 in the Philippines and the other earlier this year in an undisclosed African country. The former had researched skyscrapers in the United States and aviation security as well as taking flying lessons in a plot that is believed to have commenced in 2016.
The December 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida was not only the first deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil coordinated by a foreign terrorist organization since 9/11, it was perpetrated by an individual embedded within the Saudi Air Force, with whom AQAP had been in contact while he was on U.S. territory, up to and including the night before the attack.
Al-Qa`ida and its affiliates have not laid down their arms, nor do they have any intent to spare the United States in their ongoing jihad. Accordingly, they likely see themselves poised to benefit from any diminishment or indeed the complete withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, Africa, and elsewhere.
Terrorism and Counterterrorism Challenges for the Biden Administration - Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract: As the Biden administration starts work in January, it will face a new raft of national security challenges. Counterterrorism, as with the previous three administrations, will once again be a central concern. The administration will be forced to grapple with old threats, including from...ctc.westpoint.edu
Al Qaeda is currently expanding its global presence, the Islamic State continues to be the deadliest terror group in the world, and the Taliban is probably stronger today than it was prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001. Military action clearly isn't a viable solution when it comes to eliminating terrorist groups.
Any examples of the Trump administration using actual force against terrorist organisations? So far you have only talked about a very specific threat that wasn't carried out.
Islamic terrorism, like what we have seen over the past two decades, is a recent phenomenon. Prior to 2010, less than 10% of all terrorism globally was Islamic-related. The large increase in terrorism we saw in the 2010s had nothing to do with the abandonment of a total war policy; it was the direct result of western intervention in the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa, as the charts below clearly show.
www.britannica.com
Military action is a viable solution. I recall where you previously posted a chart showing where ISIS is still active. Every expert I've heard will disagree. Al Qaeda and ISIS are dead. The simple way to know this is that they're not in the news. The reason they're called "terrorists" is because they want to instill terror, and that can't be done unless news of an atrocity spreads. If a suicide bomber walks into an Indonesian discotech, or a Jerusalem pizza joint and kills a bunch of people, it serves no strategic purpose unless the wider world hears of it.
I used the term "Islamic Terrorism" because it is the face of modern terrorism and has been the primary source of terrorism over the past decade.
There is no denying that western intervention in the Middle East has led to an increase in terrorist activities in that region. Conflict is the primary driver of terrorism, and had the US and its allies not invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, there wouldn't have been such dramatic increases in terrorist incidents in those countries. This is a fact. With the exception of the period surrounding the first Gulf War, terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan was a relatively rare occurrence prior to the US-led invasions of those countries.
Anything I could say on this subject would be pure speculation.
I created the graphs using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) provided by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). The definition of a terrorist group has remained fairly consistant over time. A terrorist group is defined as being a nonstate actor that uses illegal force and/or violence to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal.
The rise in terrorism in the Middle East is not related to the arrival of the internet. It is directly related to violence and conflict.
You are wrong. The US built hospitals, schools, provided medical care and other infrastructure projects. They tried to liberalize the gov't and elevate women and girls to a higher level. All to no avail. It is hard to convince people you are the 'good guys' when the bad guys put a gun to their heads and say 'join us or else'. Naturally they chose the join offer. Neither hamas or al-qaeda can be totally destroyed unless you can figure out a way to eradicate an ideology. However, al-qaeda has been reduced to a sideshow and no longer dominates the news cycle as they once did(Whatever Happened to Al Qaeda?).
IS remained the world’s deadliest terrorist group in 2022 for the eighth consecutive year, with attacks in 21 countries, despite deaths attributed to the group and its affiliates slightly declining from 2,194 to 1,833 deaths.
It's hard to convince people you're the good guys after you destroy their homeland and kill their loved ones. Building schools and improving infrastructure is little consolation to those whose lives you have destroyed and continue to destroy. Had the US worked to improve the lives of Afgans and Iraqis while simultaneously focusing on hunting down the terrorists through law enforcement methods and targeting individual terrorists and their leadership, then perhaps the ideology behind al Quada could have been defeated and the rise of ISIS would have never occurred.
The fact that you have to dredge up unknown statistics only confirms my point. There was an old idea about the Italian mafia in America that said "as long as they're only killing each other, we don't care". The same could be said of the Mexican drug cartels. The same can be said of the Sunni and Shia Muslims, who've been killing each other ever since the day after Muhammad was murdered. I know it may sound callous, but it's only when groups like these spread their violence into our world, the civilized world, that they matter, and have to be dealt with militarily.
You proved my point that Al Qaeda is greatly diminished. Due to our actions. They may not have abandoned their actions but they are not the force they were.Acts of terrorism increased because the region was destabilized and became a breeding ground for terrorist recruitment. The war against terrorists ended up creating more terrorists. After a twenty-year US occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban has been growing in numbers and strength in recent years and has been responsible for a surge in terrorism in Pakistan. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, there was no ISIS. But after the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the collapse of the Iraqi government, ISIS and several other new terror groups emerged. Unfortunately, the end result of Israel's war against Hamas will be no different.
The US invaded Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda. The Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, so they also became a target.
Afghanistan, a known training ground and safe haven for the terrorist group [al-Qaeda] led by Osama bin Laden, became the initial focus of military efforts to strike back. That distant, land-locked, mountainous country presented great challenges to planners and operators. The U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy overcame those obstacles to project power halfway across the globe and conduct an offensive, in concert with Afghan allies, which drove al-Qaeda into retreat and quickly toppled the Taliban regime that supported the terrorists.
War with al-Qaeda meant war with its host the Taliban who had gained control of most of Afghanistan in the 1990s. In October 2001, U.S. military forces began a campaign against both groups. With the help of various anti-Taliban militias, American troops fought to remove the Taliban from power, destroy al-Qaeda, find bin Laden, and preclude terrorists from using Afghanistan as a refuge. Afghanistan, therefore, would be the first conflict in the decades-long Global War on Terrorism.
From Afghanistan, bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network planned and set in motion the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. He wanted to draw the United States into a protracted and unwinnable war in Afghanistan, much as the Soviets had been... the Taliban likely did not know of these plans.
Within hours after the World Trade Center’s twin towers fell in New York City, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had planned and orchestrated the attacks from their sanctuary in Afghanistan. Bush and his cabinet then learned that the Taliban was hosting and protecting bin Laden. Going to war with al-Qaeda would require fighting the Taliban.
Hamas used the same strategy as Bin Laden. They knew going into the terror attack on October 7th that Israel would respond with overwhelming force in Gaza and get caught up in a long, unwinnable war. It was a trap, and Israel fell right into it.
I didn't say the war in Iraq was against al Qaeda, I said the US did the same in Iraq; bombed, invaded, and occupied the country.
From northwest Africa to southeast Asia, al-Qa`ida has maintained a global movement of some two dozen local networks. Among the movement’s estimated 20,000 or so men-at-arms are some 3,500-5,000 hardcore loyalists in Syria belonging to al-Qa`ida’s main stalking horse in that country, Hurras al-Din. Longstanding al-Qa`ida loyalists like al-Shabaab in Somalia and al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen each command approximately 7,000 men, with several hundred associated with al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). There are estimated to be at least 400-600 al-Qa`ida fighters in Afghanistan.
Evidence that al-Qa`ida and its franchises have not abandoned prospects of reinvigorating their campaign of international terrorism with some new, dramatic, and spectacular attack may be deduced from the reports that twice this past year, al-Shabaab operatives have been arrested while taking flying lessons: one in 2019 in the Philippines and the other earlier this year in an undisclosed African country. The former had researched skyscrapers in the United States and aviation security as well as taking flying lessons in a plot that is believed to have commenced in 2016.
The December 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida was not only the first deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil coordinated by a foreign terrorist organization since 9/11, it was perpetrated by an individual embedded within the Saudi Air Force, with whom AQAP had been in contact while he was on U.S. territory, up to and including the night before the attack.
Al-Qa`ida and its affiliates have not laid down their arms, nor do they have any intent to spare the United States in their ongoing jihad. Accordingly, they likely see themselves poised to benefit from any diminishment or indeed the complete withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, Africa, and elsewhere.
Terrorism and Counterterrorism Challenges for the Biden Administration - Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract: As the Biden administration starts work in January, it will face a new raft of national security challenges. Counterterrorism, as with the previous three administrations, will once again be a central concern. The administration will be forced to grapple with old threats, including from...
Al Qaeda is currently expanding its global presence, the Islamic State continues to be the deadliest terror group in the world, and the Taliban is probably stronger today than it was prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001. Military action clearly isn't a viable solution when it comes to eliminating terrorist groups.
