Reason Behind the the War on Terrorism

A Psychological Look into War

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Sep 1, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

The Bush Administration was said to have waged war on Afghanistan in response to the September 11^th terrorist attacks in 2001 as a "war on terrorism." The general public believes this to be true although many do not know the motivators behind the war. A critical understanding of the events leading up to the war that carries into the present day is necessary for any kind of change in the future. The impact of unbiased knowledge is most important in today's societies for the progressive betterment of its people. A closer look into the war on terror will be analyzed through social psychology.

Social psychology encompasses many aspects and reasoning. Within the general scope of humanity is the psychology of the individual. Humans are born with a rational mind that has unique characteristics, thoughts, and actions different from others. The individual also pertains to a certain group, thus arises the psychology of members in a group. A person acts according to the group rules, culture, and members. Humanity is made up of different groups where there is then the psychology of group interaction. Groups develop in relation to its members where groups become factions of other groups and become distant from one another. Social psychology becomes reason behind inter-group and outer-group relations. Today's warfare provides prime examples to explore social relationships.

Afghan, Ramzi Yousef organized the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He made public demands for the United State to end involvement in Middle East affairs, to cut aid and drop all diplomatic relations with Israel. The death of six people and the thousands left injured is a direct result of Yousef acting upon a self-serving bias. He exhibits overinflated confidence in his beliefs, self-justification of his actions, and underestimates the fallibility of his one-sided reasoning, of which he denies equally contributing to cause the problems since the beginning. Yousef labeled the bombing a terrorist attack because America supports Israeli terrorism, and he believes terrorism is needed to counteract terrorism. He supports the group pride in Afghanistan, as being superior to the U.S. and other relating countries, shown in response to feelings of defensive self-esteem and vulnerability, which then deem terrorism as a solution to keep the possession of power.

Semi-independent sects of the Arab World organized the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. This is an example of a violent fundamentalists' movement, broadly known as jihad ideology. Extreme cognitive dissonance in the Arabs allows them to commit atrocities all over the globe. They change their way of thinking to match up with their actions. The jihad ideology becomes reinforced in future generations as the accepted code of conduct. The goal of the Khobar attack was to force the U.S. military out of Saudi Arabia despite the circumstance for the U.S. presence. The Arab world fell prey to the fundamental attribution error by making judgments upon the personal disposition of U.S. for its occupation in Saudi Arabia, instead of looking at all of the situational factors that caused required such occupancy. They saw America as the source of the problems occurring, although it is merely the tip of the iceberg.

In 1998, Osama Bin Laden with al-Qaeda conducted the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa. Bin Laden experienced the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. During the 1980s the U.S. military taught him guerilla warfare techniques to use against the Soviet Union. Exposed to carnage and told to murder in war, Bin Laden quickly escalated into a terrorist willing to kill anyone including children. Power hungry, he formed al-Qaeda in search to for a high-ranking military role. The embassy bombing was to lure U.S. into Afghanistan as negotiations between U.S. CentGas and the Taliban publically surfaced. Anger towards the U.S spurred the aggressive attack on USS Cole in 2000. The raid was carried out by al-Qaeda suicide bombers in a second attempt to bomb the U.S. The first attempt on the USS Sullivan failed due to the bomb laden boat that sank before detonation. Bin Laden used his role as head of al-Qaeda to lead members into terrorism and martyrdom. Acting out his role he conditioned himself and others to adopt evil behavior. His authority position allowed him to persuade al-Qaeda that he knows the truth.

The 2001 attack on World Trade Center was conducted by al-Qaeda although Osama Bin Laden denies connection to it. The obedience of al-Qaeda to Osama Bin Laden makes the terrorists attacks possible. Group obedience is a normative social influence reinforced by the group's potential destruction, in the name of Allah, upon those who break the Declaration of Jihad. Instilled with fear, members of al-Qaeda become deindividuated. They act as a unified group, unrestrained to do the most damage. Al-Qaeda's mass murder of 3,000 people justifies the objection to the U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War and U.S. -Israeli foreign policy. Bin Laden defended his actions with Islamic texts in believing jihad is the duty to destroy the destructor of Muslim countries. Strictly supporting Muslim countries enables and fosters group polarization. Al-Qaeda operates without any moderating forces that allow them to assume their beliefs are correct, as the enemy is wrong. They convene in complete isolation where their prejudices become amplified and they slide into extremism.

The Bush Administration began the "war on terror" in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban harboring al-Qaeda members, hunt down Osama Bin Laden, and rid the U.S. and U.K. of opium trafficking. Iraq was also invaded to take down Saddam Hussein and find weapons of mass destruction (WMD). American ingroup bias fueled the start of two overseas wars. Witnessing annihilation committed by airplanes sparked the fear of future detriment with WMD, as experienced in the Cold War, provided a reason to shut them down. Despite hard evidence of WMD in Iraq the power of groupthink, backed by societal pressures for revenge took over. The U.S. acted without reason, ignorant to alternative solutions to place stock in partial evidence at the cost of many people's lives, wasted resources, and the federal deficit.

The social trap of the United States and the Middle East continues to dig a deeper whole. The United States needs to protect its oil resources and big businesses. Government officials face pressure to become involved in the wars that threaten the limited resources it depends on. Each party in the war acts out of self-interest to destroy the collective well being of fellow humans. In American history, the ruling administration favors the use of a scapegoat like, "protection for the U.S. citizens, and to secure peace and justice in the Middle East," said Bush Senior in decision to enter the Gulf War, after he already made millions of dollars from the oil industry.

The U.S. successfully took down Saddam Hussein but found zero WMD. They also stamped down the Taliban and destroyed entire the economy of Afghanistan, leaving the country in ruins. Afghans were to succumb to grow opium as their main source of revenue. The NATO troops in Afghanistan are now fighting its against own wartime mistakes. The U.S. is combating major drug traffickers who revived the Taliban with financial support. Obama's plan to remain stationed in Afghanistan is in efforts to revamp and rebuild the whole country seems to be the new actuality. He wants to continue the war with the help of the Afghan people and Pakistan for post-war improvements to develop a stable, uncorrupt government using alternative economic resources, to adopt gender equality by teaching the correct way for the new generation, and open secure foreign trade relations.

Obama is focusing on altruism to fix what the U.S. destroyed, to help the Afghan people because it is the right thing to do. He feels it is the social-responsibility of the U.S. to help them for they cannot yet help themselves. With belittled resources they would fall into the vice of the Taliban. Obama wants to instill lines of communication and work on conciliation between the opposing parties. Ultimately he wants to give control to those who will not abuse it and who will know how to handle crisis without exploiting others.

Presented is a sliver to the magnitude of problems involved with the war on terror. In war, the opposing sides have the same psychological components. They both act on prejudices, have a narrow self-interest, lack communication, are willing to expend their members, and instill fear in others, while possessing an ingroup bias and feel group polarization. Each group feels they are correct and self-justify their actions against humanity. The problem each side faces is their willingness to fight wars in efforts to secure a place free from violence, fear, and terror to create a place of harmony and justice where freedom is a shared responsibility. Fighting wars to stop all war supports stagnation and teaches future generations that mass murder is appropriate if it is to support the lives of humanity. The only true way to support the lives of humanity is to instill a new set of ethics, similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that remains upheld at all times, regardless of circumstance. There could never be any such hypocritical reasoning and circular reasoning that breaks the code of ethics. Using warfare to enforce peace could never be a feasible option. The question that halts implementation of this code of ethics remains to be: how do you show people that by upholding these ethics therein lay the path to freedom? How do you show people, in obligation to Allah, who believe government will never be established by peace and cooperation but rather through, "pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth," that their moral actions are not accepted anymore?

References:

1.) The Malta Summit; Transcript of the Bush-Gorbachev News Conference in Malta

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/04/world/the-malta-summit-transcript-of-the-bush-gorbachev-news-conference-in-malta.html

2.) Transcript: Bin Laden video excerpts

BBC News, Middle East

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1729882.stm

3.) Commentary: West stares into Afghan abyss

John Hemmings

CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/15/afghanistan.analysis/index.html?iref=newssearch

4.) The world trade center bomb: who is ramzi Yousef? And why it matters