20 years ago today, the "9/11" incident that caused a sensation in the United States, and immediately, the United States began a long anti-terrorism journey.
How has the United States performed in the past 20 years? UN Human Rights Council has issued statements on many occasions, expressing concern about the United States' abuse of punishment in Guantanamo prison and hindering the reconstruction of civilian facilities in Syria.
This newspaper’s special correspondent wrote, reviewing how the 20 years of the United States’ counter-terrorism campaign, “the more it is, the more it is, the more it is terrifying”.
Today is September 11, a special day. The "9/11" incident 20 years ago opened the curtain of the so-called "global counter-terrorism" in the United States. Twenty years later, the National Memorial Museum was established on the ruins of the World Trade Center Twin Towers, and the names of 2,983 victims were carved on 76 copper plates and embedded on the wall of the memorial pool.
Although 20 years have passed since "9·11", for many survivors, the pain and trauma are still vivid in my mind. Lauren Manning is one of the worst survivors, with more than 80% of her body burned by and . She stayed in the hospital for more than 6 months back then, and this is far from the end. Her journey to healing lasted 10 years. “For me, the concepts of murder, horror and death have never been far away,” Lauren said.
On the same day, Lynn was going to attend an interview, but the terrorist attack completely changed her plan. "(At that time) I saw a couple jumping down with their hands folded, which was incredible," said Lynn. Later, she became the chairman of the 9/11 Memorial Center and held the position until 2007.
Linn said in an interview: "Now, these emotions from the 9/11 incident, I always hide them in my heart." Counter-terrorism has always become a keyword in the United States in the past 20 years. They have harmed the lives of ordinary people in different countries, causing turmoil in one hit country after another.
Change the Afghan regime from " Taliban " to "Taliban"
On October 7, 2001, the United States and Britain launched a war on terrorism, accusing Afghanistan of sheltering "al-Qaeda". The then ruling Taliban regime ended two months later.
And in April 2021, after Biden announced the withdrawal of troops, the Taliban launched another offensive to regain power. In the fight against terrorism, the United States changed the Afghan regime from the "Taliban" to the "Taliban".
Looking back at the war, we can find that if the US military with excellent weapons is set incorrectly, it is doomed to be defeated. This is the meaning of seeing the United States clearly and looking back at the war.
The first major mistake the United States made may be that it did not support the leader of the Tajik tribe nicknamed "Panjieshir Lions" in the Afghan civil war.
At that time, the United States thought that the Tajik population represented by Masud only accounted for 27% of the total population of Afghanistan. If the US government can listen to the advice of Rep. Charlie Wilson , assist prestigious leaders like Masood to come to power and invest heavily in Afghanistan's infrastructure, there may be different results.
On September 9, 2001, two days before the outbreak of the "9/11" incident, Ma Sude was assassinated. After the "9/11" incident, the US military, full of revenge, launched an expedition to the Taliban, assisted the B-52 bomber to blow up a bloody road and successfully overthrew the Taliban government.
But at this time, Masood had been assassinated, and no one could unite the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan and build a new country together. Based on the fact that the Pashtuns are the largest nation in Afghanistan, the United States chose the Pashtuns Karzai , who opposed the Taliban but did not anti-US, as its main cooperation object.
2003 Iraq War is a "false"
After the establishment of the pro-US regime, many observers believe that the next strategic goal of the US government should be to hunt bin Laden , participate in the construction of Afghanistan, or implement the two goals together. The Bush administration made a decision to open a new battlefield - "Operation Iraq Freedom".
The Iraq War in 2003 was considered by many observers to be the "carrying work" of unilateralism, which made the United States lose from face to inside.Not being authorized by United Nations is a congenital deficit. It is a "design and strangled" of Iraqi leader Saddam , but no evidence of developing weapons of mass destruction was found. The face of the United States in the international community has not been found yet.
Iraq is even more complex than Afghanistan. Both Shiites and Sunni have radical armed groups that directly exchange fire with the US military. "Al-Qaeda" also took advantage of the situation to expand and established an Iraqi branch of the base led by Zhaqawi to fight violence with the US military. This kind of fighting has made the US military exhausted and could only increase its troops. When the United States gathers in large quantities, it will inevitably ignore the combat needs to stabilize Afghanistan. The Taliban, who was beaten into the ravine, made a comeback, posing a huge challenge to the pro-US government of Afghanistan.
The number of terrorist organizations listed by the United States has increased
2011 is a turning point year in the war against terrorism. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan , and the situation in Iraq gradually stabilized. After withdrawing troops from Iraq that year, Obama ended the scarred "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Originally, Obama had the opportunity to concentrate resources and assist the Afghan government in dismantling the Taliban, but the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda took the opportunity to develop its power into Syria, which was quite combat-effective.
By 2014, this branch rose under the leadership of Baghdadi and became an "Islamic State" organization with a territory spanning the Iraq-Syrian border. In order to deal with this ruthless armed group, the United States launched a "firm determination action" to provide air support to the Kurdish armed forces in Iraq and Syria, and once again transferred resources that could have been concentrated in Afghanistan to Iraq.
What's more serious is that some people are affected by the rise of the "Islamic State" in the Middle East of and have become the so-called "Islamic State Khorasan branch", which is more radical than the Taliban. At this time, Trump had already come to power. Seeing such chaos and danger in Afghanistan, he might have the idea of throwing the mess to other countries to deal with it, and then he negotiated and compromised with the Taliban.
is an ideal design. After consultation between the Afghan government and the Taliban, they formed a secular coalition government to jointly fight against the threat of the "Islamic State" with the international community. But Afghan National Army , although it has American weapons, is still defeated in the face of the Taliban offensive.
Review the war on terrorism since the "9/11" incident, and the United States has had a chance to win. If the focus was on hunting bin Laden and al-Qaeda from the beginning, the US military would have met the standards 10 years ago. If it weren't for the Iraq battlefield, the US military wouldn't have to wait until 2011 for a "triumphant" life.
"9/11" incident, the United States has experienced four presidents, including the Republican and the Democratic parties. The order was issued, and American soldiers galloped on the battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, , Libya, . The United States lost a war that could be won, and extended a war that could be ended early for more than ten years.
From another perspective, the United States' expedition has not been without "results". One evidence of "the more you fight against terrorism, the more you fight against terrorism" is that compared with the "9/11" incident, the number of foreign terrorist organizations listed by the U.S. State Department is four times that of the time.
text/correspondent Xiaofeng
