I was only six years old when the 9/11 attacks occurred, but I will never forget the fear they instilled in me. The four airplane hijackings and the massive damage they caused to the United States shook the American public and caught the attention of the rest of the world.
The fight against Islamic extremist terror continues today, even though the war looks significantly different than it did shortly after it began on 9/11. Extremists have developed new plots and the United States and other nations have ramped up their military technology with drones and air strikes.
However, are we really safer today than we were back then? Is it true we are “winning the war?”
The fact of the matter is that no matter what America, the rest of NATO or any other nation does, this is an unwinnable war. It is like a game of chess, where every check by terrorist groups provokes a move by the Western world.
Take for example the recent shootings in Paris, or the recent hostage crisis in Sydney. After the attacks, France and Australia increased their security, but that was the exact response these terrorists were looking for. They want to provoke fear. It did not necessarily make Australia or France safer.
How about the Boston Marathon bombings back in 2013? Since then we have increased security at marathons around the nation. I personally witnessed the increased security at the GO! Marathon in St. Louis last year.
Terrorists want us to fear them. This is exactly what they want. Every time we find a way to cover up a hole, they find another hole to attack us. Then we go attack them, it is a vicious cycle that repeats over and over.
The war on terror is only a term to describe a fight against an ideology that contradicts that of the United States and much of the rest of the world.
It is equivalent to the wars we fought against communist ideologies back in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s in Korea and Vietnam. Islamic extremism, just like communism, is an ideology; changing someone’s ideology is incredibly difficult.
I believe there is no war to be won. We have no way of dismantling ISIS, the Taliban or any other terrorist group. We continue to spend massive amounts of money on this War on Terror, and we have lost countless lives in the Middle Eastern wars we have fought. We need to stop trying to fight back, and find ways to strengthen ourselves as a nation and as a Western world community that shares a similar ideology.
If we invest in security technology, hacks of the U.S. intelligence computer systems or Sony would be less likely to occur. If we invest in superior surveillance and security technology instead of weapons technology we will be more protected from potential threats.
Unfortunately, since the beginning of the new millennium, political leaders have believed that if we fight back, we will eventually destroy our opponents and win the war. It has been more than a decade now, and attacks are still occurring. How can we explain that? Once we stop responding, they will stop trying to find ways to attack us. It is like when people fight; if one person does not respond, there is no fight to be had.
We need to stop trying to win and start focusing completely on protecting our nation. I no longer fear terrorism because I know responding with fear or by fighting back will not help. Our mission should be to protect ourselves without fighting back; this is how we will win the fight against terrorism.
