The Politics of Terrorism . . . Ten Years Later Posted by Michael Cohen

Over at the Atlantic, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross rather counter-intuitively  argues that a decade after 9/11 the United States is less safe from terrorism. Considering that America's key jihadist enemy has been forced out of their safe haven, largely decimated from US military strikes and seen their ideology discredited across the Arab world and considering that the United States has improved intelligence sharing, strengthened homeland security and built up a hefty political will to deal with terrorist threats over the past ten years it seems a bit hard to imagine that America could possibly be safer. Nonetheless, Gartenstein-Ross has an interesting argument:

Safety is a product of our defensive capabilities and resiliency measured against an enemy's capacity to attack us. While al-Qaeda's capacity to attack us hasn't increased significantly, the United States has far weaker capabilities than it did 10 years ago: even if al Qaeda has experienced a decline in the past decade, then the U.S. has declined more steeply. 

The U.S.'s economic woes are well known. We have an economy in shambles and a national debt of more than $14 trillion. If this continues, we won't be able to maintain our current security apparatus and our ability to project power -- both seriously expensive enterprises -- forever. A decade ago, American safety came in part from the fact that we had the capacity, if needed, to ramp up resources to devote to the problem. In the coming decade, fewer resources will be available to devote to counterterrorism and to other problems the country faces.

The basic thrust of Gartenstein-Ross's argument is that the US has been so weakened by its overreaction to 9/11 that it lacks the capability, pocketbook and the will to respond appropriately to future attacks. "Our resilience has eroded in multiple ways," he argues.

I'm not seeing it. In the three years since the great crash, the US didn't cut back any resources or attention to the fight against "terrorism" - in fact the US largely increased them. President Obama sent nearly 50,000 additional troops to Afghanistan - doubling the number of American soldiers on the ground. Drone strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have been significantly ramped up. And the pursuit of Osama bin Laden took on greater urgency. In fact, the United States even found time to launch a war in Libya that was largely tangential to US vital interests. Where is the evidence that the United States, even in a period of austerity and budgetary pressures, has faced any obstacles in "ramping up resources to devote" to counter-terrorism or war-fighting in general?

As for the issue of whether "we won't be able to maintain our current security apparatus and our ability to project power." Wouldn't that be a good thing? Isn't it generally accepted that the US wildly overreacted in response to 9/11 and that our ability to project power led to policies that weakened rather than strengthened the United States? Wouldn't it be better if the United States didn't feel a desperate need to seek out foreign monsters to destroy whenever we feel that our security might be at risk?  Indeed, Gartenstein-Ross wisely makes this point - that in the wake of 9/11 we devoted too many resources to counter-terrorism and overspent on homeland defense. So I don't really understand why he thinks it would be an actual problem if the United States felt somewhat constrained in how it responded to a future attack. Don't we all wish George W. Bush had felt a bit more constrained after September 11th?

As much as I would like to agree with Gartenstein-Ross's argument I don't believe that even in an age of austerity "fewer resources" will be devoted to the fight against terrorism. Even with budget cuts for the Pentagon looming on the horizon the last part of the defense budget that will take a hair cut is the counter-terrorism brief, for what should be obvious political reasons. Indeed, you could probably make so me pretty significant cuts to the defense budget and still not demonstrably weaken America's ability to wage an effective counter-terrorism campaign.

And if we're hit again, fugetaboutit. If that happens, there is no limit to what Congress and the President will spend to respond.  

In the end, I think - again unfortunately - that the notion of economic stagnation imperiling our reaction to the next terrorist attack misunderstands the politics of terrorism. If there is one lesson that we should have learned over the past ten years it is that the federal government can mobilize plenty of resources in the name of national security.

Creating jobs and spurring economic growth . . . not so much.

 

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Looking at current situation in America with no jobs and a ballooning debt by the minute, this may be more terrible than a terrorist attack.I think 9/11 is a traumatic event for the US and can draw much support as far as national security is concerned, even if how overly sensitive and mixed emotions and reaction against or for it.

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