American Foreign Policy - Essay

James S Feliz

September 11, 2001:
Why Is America
a Target?

    America was a target of terrorism on September 11, 2001, and will continue to be a target of terrorism because it bears a significant degree of responsibility for generating the political, religious, and economic causes of terrorism.   As a global superpower and the dominant economic power in the world, the United States has pursued policies which have embittered millions of people throughout the Middle East and the Third World, and one of the consequences of these policies was 9/11.      
    According to Gunaratna (2003) bitterness in the Arab world about Western military and economic dominance, chronic tensions with Israel, and the rise of fundamentalist Islam combined during the last three decades of the twentieth century to foster an ideology of terrorism, especially in the turbulent Middle East.   This bitterness has motivated Islamic extremists to target both Israel and the United States for terrorist attacks.    
    Motivated by perceptions of victimization, encouraged by religious fanatics, and
trained in Osama bin Laden’s terrorist camps, nineteen Muslims hijacked American airliners and attacked New York City and Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001.  
The 9/11 attacks demonstrated that the United States was vulnerable to foreign attack despite its global military power, and was a profoundly disturbing experience for all Americans.  
    In order to understand why America was attacked on 9/11, it is necessary to examine the broader issue of Israeli/Arab enmity in the Middle East, for violence between Israelis and Muslims is just one consequence of this historical enmity, which has triggered four Arab/Israeli wars and a multitude of other violent military confrontations, such as the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon twenty years ago and the recent fighting in Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.    
    Gunaratna (2003) notes that conflict with... [continues]

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