How Successful is the US led war on terror ?

[A.V.]

Its nearing a decade when the 9-11 shook the world , for ages smaller powers were tryig to fight the terrorism menace but the world only took notice post the attack on the US a new phrase came into being " war on terror " the US took an initiative with the UN and allies to get things straight after almost 9 years.. and billions of $$ spent, valuable lives lost and infrastructure lost its time to judge.terrorist attacks around the world have increased the politicians have been making speeches where do we stand ? how safe is the life of an average citizen.

1. How successful do you think is the war on terror , is af-pak and iraq the only places which is breeding insane minds ?

2. Did the US led force succeed in what they set out to do? was the original aim and intension being fulfilled ? can we say we are living in a safe and better world than what it was 10 years back ?

3. How long will the innocents suffer the misdoings /mispolicies of nations?

4. Has the UN succeeded in making afganistan and iraq terror free ? how has the changing policies over the years affected the war ?

5. What do you think should have been done better .........?

please discuss with a wider aspect of things and not just a nation or community in particular terrorism is global and needs a hand from everybody to eliminate it out..also avoid posting links to a minimum lets have the debate .

 

[nrj]

1. How successful do you think is the war on terror , is af-pak and iraq the only places which is breeding insane minds ?

Unfortunately, War on terror all over is fought more with destructive weapons than cutting down the psychology of devils & their constant promotion in those respective regions. Af-pak & iraq are not only places breeding insane minds. We have very good internal example with us of Naxals. Its happening everywhere. Hunger for regional power will never vanish.

2. Did the US led force succeed in what they set out to do? was the original aim and intension being fulfilled ? can we say we are living in a safe and better world than what it was 10 years back ?

Only US would know how far & how close they are in reaching their 'planned strategy'. I certainly feel that world has gone more insecure than 10yrs ago. In more or less way US has only aggravated extremists which could have brought some hidden success to US but Asia has gone more hostile.

3. How long will the innocents suffer the misdoings /mispolicies of nations?

Its global timeless phenomenon IMO so it'd not end any soon.

4. Has the UN succeeded in making afganistan and iraq terror free ?

Iraq is not actively hosted by terrorists groups now, but internal aggression might rise as it was never eliminated even after Saddam's hanging.
Afganistan situation has gone more & more complicated than ever, Pak civilians are going to suffer more. I pray Indian involvement & Kashmir issue doesn't get attached to it otherwise instability will adversely harm entire South Asia & Middle Asia.

how has the changing policies over the years affected the war ?

War has been affected for sure. But coming years will tell has any of those policies achieved their any objective or extremists are still holding their side without any troubles (or have they become more influential)

5. What do you think should have been done better .........?

Taking 9/11 as origin, its hard to tell what should have been done better.

But IMO US started with Bush attacks on Taliban in early 2003. They certainly destroyed much of the terror infra out there & caught the active evil-doers but failed to maintain the situation. With Iraq involvement, things got dirty. Now planned withdrawal of US forces from af-pak will bring back the situation what existed a decade ago.

Extremists are free again to host their parties. Whats bad, they got familiar with all available defense tech in the war with the most powerful nation i.e. US. They know, what could be the harshest reaction from World power like US. Maybe now they are planning out their blows with pre-calculated response.

 

[Yusuf]

War on Terror has not been a success due to short sightedness of the policy makers in the US. I will talk about AfPak only and not go to Iraq as that is not even a war on terror and more of war for oil et al.

No the world is not a secure place. Its even more dangerous than it was 10 years ago. The US hasnt suffered another 9/11 is the only measure of success i guess for the war, but that is due to billions spent on homeland security over there and even then very recently there was a major bomb blast averted. Just shows that they are still not safe. What the war on terror has also done is started getting the educated and rich class too into the jihad/terror bandwagon. The terror organizations have done very well to use internet to propagate their ideology and these educated well healed have access to it and get themselves brainwashed as shown by Shazhad Faisel and before that the Tube bombers in London.

To talk about the short sightedness of the US policy, well it will come back to its policy on Pakistan. The US continues to live in denial about the double game the Pakistanis played for a very long time and still does with regards to terror. I think the War on Terror would have been more successful if Richard Armitages threat was converted to reality and the US did infact set foot in Pakistan and bombed all their terror networks and installed a puppet regime there as it did in Astan. That would not have totally erased the fear of terror from that region, but it sure would have set them back a lot as we know that terror is not made in Astan but in Pakistan these days. With the PA totally in shambles and a puppet regime in place, the US could have done more to tackle terror. The PA would forever be banished from its central role in running the countries affairs and may be India too could have become a better place and may be 26/11 would not have occured.

All in all i would not rate the war on terror a success no matter what the spin doctors say. That the US itself is looking for an exit is sure enough reason to believe that they have failed.