WASHINGTON, September 11 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova - Military response is not enough to counter terrorism, just as one country alone cannot deal with terrorism threats, national security lawyer Bradley Moss told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"Possibly one of the least understood concepts underlying the Global War on Terrorism was that engaging in mere 'whack a mole' campaigns was not enough," Moss said, adding that eradicating terrorism requires developing stable governing institutions and prosperous societies in the parts of the world that help breed terrorists.
"That is something that a military response alone cannot resolve and which one country alone cannot address," the expert underlined.
Thirteen years after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, many experts say that the United States is not safer than it was back then, despite government efforts.
"The American public is more aware of the global threat than it was 13 years ago and the US Government is in many ways better positioned to address it than it was back then, but whether we are safer, however, is a question for which there is no easy answer," Moss said.
The lawyer noted that US intelligence collection abilities and authorities have been greatly expanded and in theory this has resulted in improved intelligence analysis. However, this success came with a high price tag, both in terms of money and lives lost and in terms of some of our core values.
"Quite possibly the greatest challenge that the generation of Americans raised in the aftermath of 9/11 will face is how to find a proper balance, moving forward without sacrificing the gains made by the preceding generation in places like Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
When talking about US activities in Afghanistan post 9/11, Moss said that the original campaign to defeat the Taliban and eliminate Afghanistan as a training ground for terrorist groups was a temporary success.
"However, even if the subsequent 'nation building' effort had not struggled and the Taliban was not on the verge of re-taking the country which it very well might, the truth of the matter is that removing one training location simply pushed groups like al-Qaeda into creating new ones elsewhere," Moss concluded.
On September 11, 2001, the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda launched a series of coordinated terrorist attacks upon the United States. Terrorists hijacked four passenger planes; two of them were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane was flown into the Pentagon, while a fourth airliner was targeted at Washington, D.C. but crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 people died in the attacks. The United States responded to the 9/11 attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored al-Qaeda.
