USA
The scale of these attacks and the currents of world-wide attention that has occurred, obligates the United States to retaliate, said Dr. James Burk, a professor of sociology and a faculty member of the Military Studies Institute at Texas A&M.
He said the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. were far more serious than the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. The loss of life and property is far greater, so they require a greater response.
Dr. Brian Linn, a professor of history and the head of the Military Studies Institute, said, “It’s not like we didn’t respond to the attacks in Africa; we just did it on a smaller, less-publicized scale.”
“Now, this issue is a matter of perspective and scale,” he said. “The issues were clear at Pearl Harbor, so warfare was an appropriate response. But it is difficult in this case because we are not living during a time of war.”
Burk attributes the reason required for retaliation by the United States because this event has a symbolic importance.
“We’re a superpower and if we are vulnerable to attack, then so are they [other democratic nations],” Burk said.
He added that retaliation is not really the issue, but the concept of securing our values is of utmost importance.
Despite the sentiment of many Americans to retaliate and a common misconception developing among many Middle Easterners, the United States is not targeting a specific group, Linn said.
“We are not at war with Afghanistan – we are not threatening a religion or any ethnic group,” he said. Linn added, “We are just trying to punish those responsible for the attacks (in Washington, D.C. and New York).”
The position of the U.S. military is a precarious one because it is not at all clear if a country is being taken on, and yet rules of war are being applied to this situation, said Linn.
“However,” Linn added, “if Afghanistan refuses to turn over the people and groups responsible for the terrorist attacks, then our targets will broaden.”
Despite, this seeming confusion about who the United States is now at war with and why this enemy has attacked, one thing can be determined: we have done nothing to deserve what has happened and justice will be served.
TALIBAN
Many Americans are still searching for answers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The United States government is looking for those responsible, and the American people are also looking for someone to blame.
With this knowledge, it is the responsibility of U.S. citizens to understand why Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the attacks, and his Muslim militant group believe they have been called to fight a jihad against the United States.
Dr. Anthony Black, a professor of political science and policy at the University of Dundee, Scotland, is an expert on Islamic fundamentalism and the historical events that led up to this militant mind set today.
“If people, especially in the United States, want to make a rational, credible response to the events of two weeks ago, one has to know the causes,” Black said. The only way to do that, Black said, is to understand the workings of the Islamic faith, and make a distinction between devout Muslim and those who believe the terrorist attacks were in the name of Allah.
A distinction must also be drawn between Islamic fundamentalists and those who are extremists, Black said.
“There is a distinction among fundamentalists who want to wipe everything clean and start again, and those who activate such an action against the U.S. two weeks ago,” Black said.
An Afghanistan concept that gives insight into the actions of the militant Muslim group that carried out the terrorist actions is that Muslims are taught to command the good and condemn the evil.
Black added that during the 19th century, many Muslim intellectuals responded to the painful, but inescapable experience of European dominance.
Dr. Brian Linn, professor of history and director of the Military Studies Institute at Texas A&M, said, “If the enemy is cultural imperialism, it doesn’t matter who the enemy is, so there is nothing the West can do that will convince these people that we aren’t a threat to them.
“Part of the problem is that these fundamentalists believe that corruption and tyranny within Afghanistan is the fault of Western influences,” Black said.
Islamic militants believe that the United States and their allies have corrupted their people and they must reclaim their moral beliefs by minimizing the power of the United States, he said.
One argument proposed by Black was that bin Laden’s anger could be stemming from the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, which was his homeland until he was exiled in 1991.
Black emphasized, however, that the actions taken by the terrorists were not of a devout Muslim nature.
He said, “Maybe some of these people just don’t know their own religion very well and therefore have behaved in such a misguided manor in the name of Islam.”