Moving on from the ‘War on Terror’

Ten years have passed since the tragic events of September 11th 2001. Over 3,000 people died in the brazen assault on New York’s Twin Towers. Lives were shattered, families torn asunder and a nation lay shocked in the debris of that day. Within twenty-four hours President Bush had declared a `war on terror’. With the underlying threat implicit in his words `you are either with us or against us’, the US government rapidly put pressure on countries to declare their support for the USA. It was clear already at this early stage that this was not going to be a quick operation, a side-line activity to be undertaken by the usual set of security agencies such as the CIA, special forces, FBI and military. As Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State said, “It isn’t going to be solved with a single counter-attack against one individual, it’s going to be a long term conflict.”