War on terror participant Islamic State
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing global counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is also the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign were militant Islamist and Salafi jihadist armed organisations such as Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their international affiliates, which were waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim-majority countries. Other major targets included the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, which was toppled during an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing Iraqi insurgency.The "war on terror" uses war as a metaphor to describe a variety of actions which fall outside the traditional definition of war. 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush first used the term "war on terrorism" on 16 September 2001, and then "war on terror" a few days later in a formal speech to Congress. Bush indicated the enemy of the war on terror as "a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them." The initial conflict was aimed at al-Qaeda, with the main theater in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a region that would later be referred to as "AfPak". The term "war on terror" was immediately criticized by individuals including Richard Myers, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eventually more nuanced terms came to be used by the Bush administration to define the campaign. While "war on terror" was never used as a formal designation of U.S. operations, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal was issued by the U.S. Armed Forces.
The "war on terror" was officially declared over in May 2010 and again in May 2013. On 23 May 2013, US President Barack Obama announced that the "war on terrorism" was over, saying that the U.S. would not wage war against a tactic but would instead focus on a specific group of terrorist networks. Other American military campaigns during the 2010s have also been considered part of the "war on terror" by individuals and the media. The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria during 2014-2015 led to the global Operation Inherent Resolve, and an international campaign to destroy the terrorist organization. This was considered to be another campaign of the "war on terror". With the major wars over and only low-level combat operations in some places, end of the war in Afghanistan in August 2021 symbolises the visible ending of the war, or at least its main phase, for many in the West. The United States Military ceased awarding the National Defense Service Medal for the Global War on Terror on December 31, 2022. As of 2023, various operations in the campaign are ongoing, including an ongoing counter-insurgency campaign in Somalia.The notion of a "war on terror" remain contentious, with critics charging that it has been used to reduce civil liberties and infringe upon human rights, such as controversial actions by the U.S. including surveillance, torture, and extraordinary rendition, and drone strikes that resulted in the deaths of alleged terrorists but also civilians. Many of the U.S.' actions were supported by other countries, including the 54 countries that were involved with CIA black sites, or those that assisted with drone strikes.Criticism of the war on terror has focused on its morality, efficiency, and cost. According to a 2021 study conducted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the several post-9/11 wars participated in by the United States in its war against terror have caused the displacement, conservatively calculated, of 38 million people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Philippines and Pakistan; 11.3 million remain displaced. This makes it the war that has caused the largest number of forced displacements since 1900, with the exception of World War II. The study estimated these wars caused the deaths of 897,000 to 929,000 people, including over 364,000 civilians, and cost $8 trillion. Critics accuse participating governments of using the "war on terror" to repress minorities or sideline domestic opponents, of mainstreaming Islamophobia, and have criticized negative impacts to health and the environment resulting from it. Critics assert that the term "war" is not appropriate in this context (much like the term "war on drugs") since terror is not an identifiable enemy and it is unlikely that international terrorism can be brought to an end by military means.
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