Discuss the impact of the 9/11 attacks on U.S. foreign policy.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
- New principles to define foreign policy: nations that harbored or supported terrorists were to be regarded by the United States as hostile regimes; U.S.-British military campaign launched a war in Afghanistan after the Taliban government refused to hand over Osama bin Laden but did topple the Taliban government; a focus on the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) shifted military focus to regime change by ordering the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq; the Bush Doctrine stated that the United States would take preemptive action to disrupt their enemies' plans and worst threats before they emerged
- Intelligence gathering: documents released after the invasions of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein showed no direct link between al-Qaeda and Hussein and no evidence of WMDs in Iraq; Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the Bush administration had knowingly misrepresented the intelligence and threat from Iraq; Bush issued a secret executive order that proclaimed an "extraordinary emergency" that allowed the military to pursue terrorists in the shadows of the intelligence world
- Defense spending and government reorganization: Bush had to push the deficit to record levels to keep funding the occupation of Iraq and the combat against the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan; Department of Homeland Security established to coordinate the nation's defense against terrorist threats
- Civil liberties: USA PATRIOT Act gave federal officials greater authority to track and intercept communications for law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering purposes and broader discretion in tightening borders against suspected foreign terrorists, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 1,000 Muslims, both foreign and U.S. citizens, although only a few were actually charged with crimes related to terrorism; government agencies also were able to search phone and email records and access individual and corporate financial and medical records; USA PATRIOT Act II enlarged the grounds for surveillance and secret arrests; Bush's "extraordinary emergency" executive order allowed the military to detain and try by military tribunal anyone, including U.S. citizens, who were named "enemy combatants" and were imprisoned at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba; these prisoners were held without recourse to the customary legal rights of American citizens or international law and were subjected to "enhanced interrogation" until the Detainee Treatment Act barred cruel and unusual punishment