Neo- con Essay.
America and Islamic extremists have opposed each other in beliefs for over a hundred years. The adoption of the Neo- Conservative mindset as a result of the September 11 attacks on the world trade centre resulted in even more tension between Islamic extremists and the US. This resulted in a decade of war between the US and the extremists. The US has a history of Neo Conservatives in the government, this movement was started by Leo Strauss in the 1940’s, and this led to the split of the conservative party into the Neo- conservatives. This began to threaten the Islamic extremists when Kutb began a movement to raise concerns about the “lost souls” in America. Aside from that past, the attacks on the world trade centre in 2001 were taken as an ‘attack on the US by the Bush government. What followed was a decade of accusations, racial profiling and war between the US and the Middle Eastern countries. (Curtis, 2004).
On the night of September 11, President Bush declared a war on terror and described that they would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." (Bush, 2001) The following weeks resulted in the Neo- Conservative sections of the Bush government to come out and threaten Iraq and other states that harbour and support terrorist organisations. Two days after the attacks, US Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz made a declaration of violence by stating: "I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign." (Wolfowitz, 2001). In October of 2001, the US followed through with their mindset by sending allied troops to invade Afghanistan due to the fact that they had intelligence that the Taliban government were harbouring Al Qaeda.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on America, the US adopted a Neo- Conservative mindset to combat the terrorist organisations. The general belief of the Neo- cons is that the United States should not be scared to use their immense military power to create a world that is based on fair guidelines. They believe that the threat to the US can no longer be put aside and they had to use military force to act on this threat. Their belief was to prevent the threat against America by proactively invading the hostile states that “harbour terrorists” and force regime changes that will later reduce the threat towards their own country.
The US also made changes into investigating suspected terrorists in the country. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. Thus act enforced laws that would supposedly protect the nation from terrorists. Intense security screening at airports, racial profiling and severe background checks on possible immigrants was some of the policies that were put in place. These policies are somewhat effective, but these laws also caused privacy