These direct war and reconstruction costs amounted to less than 1 percent of overall GDP. In the international system, new transnational challenges such as pandemics and cybersecurity emerged, and state competitors such as China and Russia adopted more assertive stances in the global arena.
As America focused on the battle against terrorist networks, the broader global landscape shifted. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for instance, stopped production of the F Raptor stealth fighter in part because he saw it as useless in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Moreover, after decades of gains for freedom in the world beginning from the late s, the tide started to turn in and around During the ensuing years—roughly over the past decade and a half—the world has witnessed stagnation and declines in political rights and civil liberties worldwide. The extremist ideologies that were present 20 years ago have evolved, taken on different forms, and spread across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Globally, the fight against Salafi-jihadi terrorism presents a mixed picture. Likewise, the Islamic State group was deprived of its territorial control by a U. Terrorist groups motivated by this ideology have killed thousands in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region over the past two decades, including the Bali bombing and Mumbai hotel siege that left hundreds dead. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban following the U.
The Taliban will likely provide safe harbor to al-Qaida and other Salafi-jihadi terrorist groups moving forward, and the U. As with the rise of the Islamic State group, it could give Salafi-jihadism an infusion of new energy. Chronic instability and a lack of effective governance in key parts of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa leaves countries vulnerable to nonstate threats. This is not a necessary consequence of the past 20 years of U.
Rather, it was a preexisting condition that did not improve. This complicated task involved a deep understanding of internal power dynamics and determining the best way to help other societies navigate major divisions—an understanding that the United States and other outside actors never fully acquired. Because of the persistence of extremist ideologies, violent conflict, and state failure, millions of people are on the move around the world.
Overall, the global refugee and internally displaced persons IDPs population has gone from a combined 18 million 12 million refugees and 6 million IDPs in to a combined more than But, as witnessed in recent weeks in Afghanistan and over the past few years in conflicts in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, state failure and the presence of nonstate terrorist groups often drives people to flee across borders.
While President George W. Bush inconsistently attempted to frame the Iraq war as part of his Freedom Agenda in the Middle East, his three successors dwelled on the failures of the U. But these more positive outcomes came at great strategic, material, and human cost—including the creation of a number of conflicts and foreign policy crises that will not disappear in the near future. Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Peter Juul is a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.
America recognized the need to redefine national security and elevate nonmilitary tools of national power but fell short in making a fundamental shift toward a new approach A few years into the initial U.
A new generation came of age in more open societies in Iraq and Afghanistan The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq removed authoritarian rulers from power and produced a qualified and tenuous sense of freedom in those countries that remained vulnerable to many security threats and challenges.
Costs and sacrifices The human costs and casualties of wars and conflicts have been staggering It is difficult to capture the costs to human life in a wide range of efforts over two decades in dozens of countries.
Direct financial costs for U. The battle of ideas is still not won and extremist ideologies and terrorist networks continue to take on new forms and spread The extremist ideologies that were present 20 years ago have evolved, taken on different forms, and spread across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Failed states continue to strain the international system Chronic instability and a lack of effective governance in key parts of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa leaves countries vulnerable to nonstate threats. A growing global refugee crisis presents additional challenges for the world Because of the persistence of extremist ideologies, violent conflict, and state failure, millions of people are on the move around the world.
Spending for World War II peaked at more than a third of the national economy in , while wars in Korea and Vietnam peaked at 4. By comparison, spending on both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan peaked at 1. At the same time, the United States enacted expensive and ambitious policy programs at home: the and Bush tax cuts; Medicare drug coverage expansion in ; the financial bailout; the Obama stimulus; the Affordable Care Act; the Trump tax cuts; and a series of multitrillion dollar COVID relief packages in and These polices were all pursued regardless of the financial cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and rarely were the costs of these wars used to characterize these domestic policies as unaffordable.
The United States too often overestimates benefits and underestimates costs of particular policy choices. There is an important similarity between how the United States got into Iraq in and how it left Afghanistan in Political leaders and policymakers overestimated the benefits and underestimated the costs of preferred courses of action.
In making the case for these policies, the presidents involved offered a set of false choices: invade or be attacked with weapons of mass destruction ; withdraw from a conflict or escalate it. Agency for International Development. Other things seemed like, potentially, could and will with time have stopping points. On this question, there is a sharp partisan divide that has become familiar in American politics. There is also a racial division. Obviously, it affected my life.
I joined the military. Navy and was deployed to Iraq. Two decades ago, the idea of domestic terrorism seemed so remote that polls generally didn't ask about it. Many Americans remain braced for more terrorist attacks. Half of those surveyed say more acts of terrorism on the USA in the next few weeks are very or somewhat likely.
Americans' confidence in the U. When he arrived home from school, it was the first time he had seen his father cry. And it seemed like it was all short-lived. On the 10th anniversary, the evaluation had turned negative, and on the 20th anniversary, even more so. Table 2: Compared to the situation before September 11, , do you think the country today is safer or less safe from terrorism? William A. Galston Ezra K.
Binder and Molly E. West and Nicol Turner Lee.
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