Andrew Hagen

To better characterize the Global War on Terrorism a consideration of history is in order.

The last few years strike me as building progressively toward greater heights of crisis. For example, since the bitter Congressional campaign of 1994, political intensities in the United States have heated up considerably.

Let’s take a chronological look at some major events, starting with the onset of the World War I to provide perspective. Note how events have sped up since 1994.

1914 - World War I begins.

1917 - US enters war. Russian Revolution deposes the Czar. Soviet Union created. Millions are killed by communists.

1918 - World War I ends. Ottoman Empire ceases to exist. Austro-Hungarian empire ceases to exist.

1921 - Quota Law significantly reduces number of immigrants entering US. Ideology of Islamism created by Sayyid Qutb and others.

1933 - Hitler comes to power in Germany. While he is in power, millions of Jews and others are murdered in the Holocaust.

1939 - World War II begins.

1941 - Pearl Harbor attack by Empire of Japan. US enters World War II.

1945 - World War II ends. The British Empire begins to break up.

1947 - The Cold War begins.

1948 - The Berlin Airlift. The State of Israel is created.

1950 - The Korean War begins.

1953 - The Korean War ends.

1956 - Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education finds segregation unconstitutional.

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963 - President Kennedy assassinated.

1964 - The Gulf of Tonkin incident. The US enters the Vietnam War in earnest.

1965 - For first time since 1920s, US immigration law changed to allow in large numbers of newcomers.

1969 - First men on Moon.

1973 - The US withdraws from Vietnam War.

1974 - Under pressure of Watergate scandal, President Nixon resigns.

1979 - Saddam Hussein takes power in Iraq. Khomeini takes power in Iran. Hostage crisis begins. Soviet Union intervenes in Afghanistan on behalf of its puppet regime.

1980 - Hostage crisis ends. Iran-Iraq war begins.

1983 - Hizb’Allah bombs US Marine barracks and other Western facilities in Beirut, Lebanon.

1986 - Iran-contra scandal comes to light. Chernobyl accident.

1988 - Iran-Iraq war ends. Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan.

1989 - Berlin Wall torn down.

1990 - Germany reunifies as Western liberal democracy. Saddam invades and purports to annex Kuwait. The Peace of Paris officially ends the Cold War.

1991 - Gulf War ejects Saddam from Kuwait. Soviet Union finishes breaking up.

1993 - World Trade Center bombed. US soldiers ambushed by Al Qaeda in Somalia. NAFTA passed into law.

1994 - Republican Party conducts “Contract with America” campaign, wins control of House and Senate in historical shift.

1995 - Federal government shuts down during budget conflict between President Clinton and Congress. NATO intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Oklahoma City bombing.

1996 - Welfare reform passed. Defense of Marriage Act passed. Taliban take de facto power in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda hits US troops barracks at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.

1997 - Princess Diana dies in car crash.

1998 - Lewinsky scandal comes to light. President Clinton impeached in House. Al Qaeda bombs US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Missile strikes against Al Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan and the Sudan, and Iraqi WMD installations. India and Pakistan each announce that they have nuclear weapons.

1999 - President Clinton not convicted in Senate. NATO intervention in Kosovo against Yugoslavia.

2000 - Al Qaeda bombs USS Cole. Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic turned out after corrupt election. US Presidential election result unknowable due to botched Florida election. Katherine Harris, official in charge of Florida election, says George W Bush wins. Supreme Court says Bush wins.

2001 - Al Qaeda attacks US on 9/11. Anthrax attacks occur. US–led intervention in Afghanistan deposes Taliban, rousts Al Qaeda from bases.

2002 - Al Qaeda attack on Bali nightclub. UN Security Council demands Iraq comply with weapons inspections. Iraq does not comply.

2003 - US, UK and other countries liberate Iraq and capture Saddam. Libya gives up secret nuclear weapons program. Al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Massachusetts court stamps gay-marriage into law.

2004 - President Bush proposes increased immigration to the US.

Despite the tendency to consider recent events more important, it seems to me that the past few years have indeed had great historical importance.

Philip Bobbitt argues in his book the Shield of Achilles that the 1917–1990 period was “the Long War.” Now, he says, we face a separate, new, lengthy war against terrorism. His analysis of history finds that long periods of peace clearly separate historical wars from each other. Since the Peace of Paris in 1990 the world has enjoyed little peace, however. Even as the Cold War ended, the wars with terrorists took its place.

Perhaps the Long War did not concern itself only with the fates of Germany and Russia, and determining the winner between democracy, fascism, and communism. Perhaps the Long War resulted from the breakup of the many empires of the world that began during World War I. Perhaps the Long War began with World War I and continues now. Perhaps fascism suffered defeat in World War II only to reemerge as Islamofascism. With the decline of communism, perhaps the Global War on Terrorism is the final confrontation of the Long War—the confrontation between democratic liberalism and the last totalitarianism, militant Islamism. The victor will be the architect of world order. Thus the need for liberal democracy to persist, persevere, and triumph against the enemies of freedom.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2004 at 03:23 and is filed under History, Global War on Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.