Issue With America's War On Terrorism example essay topic

When trying to answer the loaded question, "Why do they hate us so much", Telhami states that the hostility is not based in American values, but rather due to the foreign policy that seems to only consider American interests. Telhami points to the fact that France, which shares America's western values, is well liked in the Middle East. Joffe makes the claim that we are no longer checked or balanced by the Soviet Union, and thus, America is now able to engage in foreign policy unilaterally. This unilateral action is the root of the problem when it comes to Middle Eastern views towards the United States.

Joffe makes the claim that on principle people do not like excessive power. In his words, the US has become a "Hyper Power", unopposed by any other power. This occurred on Christmas Day 1991, when the Kremlin lowered the Soviet Flag for the last time. During the Afghan war, it became clear that the US did not need the coalition with others, but only the assistance.

In the words of Rumsfeld, "The Mission describes the coalition, not the other way around". This unilateral action worries the rest of the world, and fails to resurrect American's image as an Empire. Joffe goes on to say "great power begets counter power". This unilateral action leads to the answer to the question "Why do they hate us so much?" The truth is that America policy is what worries most of the rest of the world. According to Telhami, there is a percentage, albeit it a small one, that is opposed to America values in principle. However, he makes the claim that the large majority of people in the Middle East are opposed to the unilateral stance takes in facing those would be terrorists.

The "with us or against us" is creating a situation, where more and more countries are willing to be against us and risk the consequences. According to Joffe this scenario finally occurred on March 5, 2003 when France, Russia, and Germany. In standing against America, these countries showed their resistance to the United States unilateral action when it comes to foreign policy. Both Telhami and Joffe agree that the war against terrorism is not a war that America can win acting alone. However, the current course of action by the administration is to attack states that fund terrorism. This does not sit well with the rest of the world, which sees the terrorism coming from private sources, not state funding.

There needs to be a multilateral cooperation that will attempt to de-legitimate terrorism as a useful tool for bringing about change. Telhami believes that terrorism, post 9/11, is more effective. America's unilateral approach leads to more resentment. In the latest installment in the ongoing war on "evil", Iraq was attacked and Saddam removed from power.

However, before the war occurred, Turkey was apprehensive about letting the US base its air attacks from Turkish soil. The reason behind this apprehension was not the expected fear of an independent Kurdish state, but that the United States was waging a war on Islam. The issue with America's war on terrorism is that it is in danger of creating more opposition and terrorism, instead of unifying the world against these atrocities. Telhami and Joffe go to great lengths to impart the impression that the America's imperialist nature is mobilizing the world against them. States are susceptible to deterrents, but terrorists are not. Unless the United States is able to unify the world with them against terrorism, America will have to fight the supply of terrorists as well simultaneously creating the demand for terrorists.