Political Consequences of 9/11 - Essay Example

Even a former CIA director and chief adviser to New York's Terrorism Preparedness Taskforce has described the conflict against Al-Qaeda as the 'fourth world war', and he predicts it will go on for decades. Thus 9/11 has resulted in not just a war on terrorism but also a war on Islamic fanaticism. (News, 2006) It is said that 9/11 attacks raised the issue to attack Iraq with no satisfactory evidence for weapons of mass destruction and with no evidence of a clear link between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.

In this, Al Qaeda has become a spectral entity; it is both everywhere and nowhere, and because it can function as an empty signifier it can condense every threat against the United States. (Diken & Laustsen, 2004) Section 806 of the Patriot Act added a new provision to section 981 that is an obvious response to 9/11. Section 981 (a) (1) (G) authorizes forfeiture of all assets of anyone engaged in terrorism, any property affording any person a 'source of influence' over a terrorist organization, and any property derived from or used to commit a terrorist act.

(Cassella, 2002) Support for the establishment of an Interim Administration in Afghanistan committed to combating terrorism. The UK outlined its objectives in the domestic and global fights against terrorism in a 16 October speech to the House of Commons, the main objectives were to do everything possible to eliminate the threat posed by international terrorism, to deter states from supporting, harboring or acting complicity with international terrorist groups and Reintegration of Afghanistan as a responsible member of the international community and an end to its self-imposed isolation.

One of the strongest regional responses to terrorism has been that of the European Union in the form of moves to establish a common database among EU members of known members of terrorist organizations and moves to establish a common EU-wide police force. However, even this still remains in relatively early stages of development and it is not clear how it will work with continuing EU expansion.