The War is not Over
Source: The Hill, 6/16/2011
Following the release of ASP’s Are We Winning? 2010 report, Bernard Finel and Jim Ludes publish an op-ed in The Hill.
“…Leon Panetta will face a number of daunting tasks as the country’s first Democratic Secretary of Defense in more than 14 years — from leading the Department of Defense in a time of war to managing the defense budget in a time of fiscal constraint. In taking on these important tasks, it is vital that the former director of central intelligence not lose sight of one fact: the war against al Qaeda and its allies is not over.
In fact, the story of the “War on Terror” over the last 15 months is one of stalemate.
Despite tactical successes against al Qaeda, of which the killing of bin Laden is just the latest, the underlying trends in Islamist violence are troubling. In 2010, there were 2,534 attacks worldwide, up from 2,110 in 2009. There were only 945 such attacks in 2005 – the first year for which the National Counter Terrorism Center has reliable numbers. If you exclude attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq and against Israel, there were 849 attacks in 2010, up from 799 in 2009. In contrast, there were only 197 in all of 2005.
Trends within the United States took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2010 with the rise of highly-visible anti-Muslim sentiment as well as an increase in cases of domestic radicalization. The highly sensationalized dispute over a Muslim cultural center in lower-Manhattan and the copy-cat protests against mosques in other cities across the country revealed a darkening mood among Americans. In July 2005, 41 percent of Americans held a favorable view of Islam. By the end of last summer, that number had declined to 30 percent…”
