Reaction to Terrorism

Ideas and experiences change ourselves. History affects then and now.

Throughout the last century, America, as a nation, became more and more involved in world affairs. With each coming war and each world-wide struggle, more and more isolationists changed their views. Isolationists always exist, but there are less of them now than there were at the beginning of the 20th century. America can no longer deny that it held a special place in the world and is considered one of the leaders of the world. The experiences of the past century helped shape the different views that many Americans have today.

Fight for Democracy and Freedom

Americans had always considered themselves to be the center of democracy and the protector of all the freedom that democracy represents. In a way like the "white men's burden" of the earlier ages (Halsall, 1997), most Americans believe that they have the burden of bringing democracy to the rest of the world. It is using this type of viewpoints that many war messages were made. It is also upon this argument that many other propaganda posters promoting wars were developed.

Whenever a war was declared, one of the main reasons that the war messages stated, in one form or another, was that we are the "arsenal of democracy" and that we must protect it (Roosevelt, 1940). Roosevelt, in his war message for World War II, had said, "Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain our right to live among our world neighbors in freedom and in common decency, without fear of assault" (Roosevelt, 1941). Similarly, the Vietnam War was fought under the pretense that democracy must be protected. Communism was an enemy of democracy, and therefore, any offense of communism against democracy must be helped by the United States (Wawrzycki, 2000).

It is also with similar statements that the Civil Rights Movement kicked off. The various war messages expresssed the similar thoughts that everyone could be equal in the other nations, and would be equal, even if the same is not completely true within the United States (Dr. Victory). As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in one speech "I've been to the Mountaintop", "We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are saying that we are determined to be people. We are saying...we are saying that we are God's children..." (King, 1968). Analyzing this quote, one would immediately notice that Dr. King is saying that people are equal. If we are helping others to be equal, why can't we be equal, too? A fight for freedom and democracy is not just occurring around the world - it is also happening within our own country, and it should be about time that demcracy and freedom are distributed to all the races living in America.

Expectation 2

This consistent pattern - the need to relate to how Freedom and Democracy must be saved and protected in all places, help serve as a basis for how the Bush administration reacted to the events of September 11, 2001. In his war message asking for Congress to declare war on terrorism, he said that the men who commenced the September 11th attacks were "enemies of freedom" (Bush, 2001). Similarly, to evoke the patriotism in many Americans to support the war, he had said that "Afghanistan's people have been brutalized—many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television..." as well as "The United States respects the people of Afghanistan—after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid—but we condemn the Taliban regime..." (Bush, 2001).

Our culture was grown upon the democracy and freedoms that our founding fathers had given. They had helped to build the wonderful form of solid government that we see even today, over two hundred years later, so why couldn't democracy and freedom work with other countries? Bush had basically stated in his war request that the terrorists do what they do because democracy and all the odds and ends of 'true civilization' are standing in the way of their goal (Bush, 2001). In this way, the foundation of our nation had become our reason to intervene in all sorts of wars.

Irrationalism and Fear of it

Americans had always had a fear of 'rationality' that is unlike the one established within the country. Throughout history, different examples show this fear of irrational thinking and actually acting upon the fears. This is one of the many factors that had affected how America reacted to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. One example of this is communism and the various wars over it, such as the Cold War and all that it embodies.

The Cold War and its "Iron Curtain" is basically started because of a fear for communism and the spread of its 'irrational thinking.' Russia had become a communist state for some time, and it had shown interest in spreading its territories as well as its way of government - communism (Lyons, 2005). Conservative newspapers condemned the liberals as well as schools teaching about communism (Lyons, 2005). In Chicago alone, a great number of people suffered accusations that they had communist beliefs in the 1950's. It was as if history was repeating itself - the horrors of the Red Scare shortly after World War I relived during the Cold War shortly after the next World War. (Burnett, 2000)

In addition to the Cold War example, another good example is Nazism and Fascism during World War II - the totalitarian states. Americans fought in World War II not only because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but also because of a growing tension and unease at the spread of the "irrational" governments (World War II in Europe, 2006).

Shortly after the September 11th attacks, George W. Bush asked the congress to declare war on terrorism. His reasons, as said before, were based upon how Americans disliked most who practiced a different form of government or had a different way of thinking. "But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world—and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere..." (Bush, 2001).

Although Bush had said that Muslims and their beliefs were one of the targets of the war, news stories and later coverage had conveniently omitted that. The common trend and belief among the Americans came to stand as this: because there are Muslim extremists out there, it blackens the name for most Muslims, even if they are fighting against the extremists (Nawash, n.d.). Yes, there are very few Muslims living in the United States, and most people think that the Muslim religion is very odd because of their different traditions and practices, but one could rightfully say that this made them stand out. Anything bad said about them would be most likely believed since no one understands them much. By sometimes not acknowledging that not all Muslims are part of the religion of the terrorist organizations, it is doing them a disfavor, and instilling the wrong idea into many people's minds.

Americans had always had a fear of 'radical' beliefs - beliefs that they themselves do not possess. This fear often leads to rash decisions. Although not all of the decisions are bad, neither are they all right. What is shown, however, is that to have a fear is okay, but to totally act upon it without reason could cause dire consequences (such as the Cold War). America is influenced by history, but we are still making history. It is important that our history is the 'right history.'