The Discourse of the Conflict between the East and the West - Essay Example

Introduction: The American foreign policy had to undergo some radical change after the terrorist attack on the twin towers on 9/11 attack of the year 2001. To be more specific the entire globe witnessed the emergence of a new concept “War Against Terrorism”. The then American President George W Bush was the father of this concept. Mainly the American army operations in the geographical boundary of Afghanistan with the help of the Northern Alliance and US army operation in Iraq were categorized by George W Bush and the US allies as the significant part of the war against terrorism by the United States and its allies. The main objective, as per the propaganda of President Bush, was to trace out the militant groups controlled by Islamic fundamentalism especially the Al Qaeda by Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban led by Mullah Mohd Omar of Afghanistan. Actually the term “War Against Terror” and the execution of the propaganda by the America can be defined as a major global conflict regarding the politics and ideology of the two superpowers of two different corners of the globe: the American power of the west and the Islamic militants of the east. Apparently it can be said the main battle between the two was initiated by the terrorist attack on the twin towers by the Al Qaeda but the reality is not so easy and simple. Many complex equations should be analyzed to realize the real face of the tussle. The matter of fact is that since the last half of the 20th century there was gradual emergence of militant extremist with the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. The repeated violence by these militant groups in form of bomb-blasting, abduction and killing, genocide etc have represented such groups as major threat to the political and economic smooth functioning of many of the countries. The United States found it intolerable after the attack of 9/11. That compelled the US to announce military actions against Afghanistan and Iraq. The USA conceptualized the term war against terrorism and that term gained popularity in military, legal, political and democratic discourse. That brought about a serious and fatal conflict between the America and Middle East. The American President George W Bush, the father of the term “War Against terror’” announced that this war had some noble objective to be attained. That war was announced to be a war of justice, the war to save humanity the war to stop terrorism on the globe. According to the version of George W Bush designed the war was designed to protect the domestic right and interest of the US citizens. The major objective was to destroy the possibility of such kind of inhuman and dangerous activities by the militant groups. After the 9/11 attack by Al Qaeda the US government lodged a battle against Afghanistan by the attack through tying up with the Northern Alliance. That brought an end to the Taliban governance in Afghanistan and to end the era of Saddam the American force attacked Iraq. So our main objective here is to concentrate on the facts of ideological and political conflicts. According to many people that war was launched by George W Bush was nothing but a political issue. On the other hand there are many persons who really believed that the war took place due to some ideological religious conflict. Moreover, there were some people also who found the ideological conflict between the Islamic Militant groups and the main factor that accelerated the battle. In this present paper some efforts have been made to seek out the particular type of ideological conflict that could be represented as the main reason behind this war. In order to make proper explanation we would introduce the concept of critical discourse analysis. Here we would like to judge the ideologies of both Bush and Laden and their expressions about their own ideology.   Conclusion Apparently the paper is concerned with the discourse of the conflict between the east and the west. The west America and the east Islamic militant group differ from each other regarding the ideological equations of their own. In this context the discourse of identity is highly significant. To be more specific, it is found from the paper that the discourse of political, social and religious ideology would show us the light on this conflict which has been causing the bloodbath of the both of those conflicting parties. This paper, in this context has conceptualized the discourse. The discourse can be defined as the mode of presentation or establishment of oneself. Actually different ideas of discourse represent the act of realization or the act of resemblance of any idea or any concept. In this paper the main fact is the war between the east and the west. The main basis of the war could be judged according to the method of discourse of these two. The notorious war between the east and the west may be attributable highly to some political and ideological conflict. Thats why; it’s highly required to realize the ideology and the possible sources of the ideological conflicts. In the modern word conceptualization of ideology has become a very complex and difficult task. Difficulties arise due to the changing pattern of the explanation and description of the ideology according to the superstructure. Hence we can say that the concept of ideology is flexible.  To be Marxian we can say that the economic bases, which determine the superstructure, are major players of ideology. The example is that America is a capitalist country and the market is dominated by the capitalists. Hence profit maximization would be the ideology. So, we can unambiguously argue that if the economic bases of two countries are conflicting there may be conflict between these two countries. The Marxian law of ideology could explain the America Vietnam war very well but it is not much applicable for the case of war against terrorism. Thats why the paper has shifted its attention from the Marxian point. In this paper the concept of ideology and its political context are repeatedly discussed. The concepts of ideology of different great philosophers have been discussed. One common essence that comes from the works of different philosophers is that it is some kind of perception of human beings or some interaction of human minds which are flexible and there is no rigid yardstick to measure ideology. Thats why the interpretation can be done with a wide array of conceptualization. In a feudalistic or aristocrat society the ideology could be represented as the presence of loyalty honor etc. The fun is that the ideology of the society is nothing but some conventions which are favorable for the ruling class. So what happens to self identity? Perhaps there exists some mild clash between self identity and the ideology. In a society the self identity is often grabbed by the ideology. What ideological discourse can be sought out in the case of the American war against terrorism? The ideological discourse of the two rival sides has been sought out in this paper. The Islamic militant force that emerged in the second half of the 20th century headed virtually by Osama Bin Laden created a threat to the entire human civilization by the terrorist attacks against the non Islamic countries. The leader of Al Qaeda, Laden made his effort to find out the ideological base of his destructive actions from the holy Islamic book, The Quran. In the speeches of the Al Qaeda leader we can often found the word ‘Jihad’. Laden has sought to support himself and seek the support of the Islamic community by a philosophical ideology of the order of the one and only Allah by quoting the Quran. We can find that Osama often use the quotes of the holy book and according his political discourse west is considered to be the rejecters of the Allah, the murderers and the west is hampering the sanctity of women. The genocide by the Islamic militant groups is ideologically supported as those are interpreted as Jihad, the order of the almighty Allah. The paper has also discussed how the political discourse of the ideology of the American President George W Bush has sought support for his war against Afghanistan and Iraq. In the political discourse of ideology Bush has also used the religion but he has stressed more on democracy and freedom of America. He has expressed his confidence on the supremacy of America. In his speeches Bush has always sought support from the American citizens as well as the Muslim population of the east as well as west who are against the inhuman acts of terrorism. The speeches of the American president has always described west as the preacher of democracy whereas the east is described as the place of terrorism, So far the paper is concerned we can find that the different parties have used the different political discourse of the ideological philosophy. The matter of fact is that the ideology of a country or any organization or any institution is influenced by the dominating force that influences it. The example is the genocide that created by the Al Qaeda. According to the political discourse of the ideology of the America it is a condemnable act that should be opposed by the entire worlds whereas according to the version of the Al Qaeda supreme Osama Bin Laden it is the result of the sins committed by America against the order of the almighty Allah. The irony lies in the ideological support that they produce for the same work. On the other hand the killing of the innocent women and people by the American troop in Iraq which should be condemned is actually receiving an ideological support from the American president on the ground that it is a repercussion of the killing of innocent women and children in west by Al Qaeda. So we can find the discourses, especially political and philosophical discourses establish the ideology of each party in own favour. That is the major irony in the discourse of ideology. Each of the parties actually wants to establish own supremacy not anything ethically justifiable.   Read More