User:Laylims/sandbox

Middle east and the west

Reagan

The Global War on Terror was declared in 2001 by President George W. Bush, following the attacks on the world trade center. However, though President Bush's coined term of the "War on Terror" is argued to not be the beginning of a war, rather apart of a longer lasting war apart of a wider and deeper issue. In 1996, Osama Bin Laden made threat to the United States, by making a declaration of war. The growing tensions of the middle east is suggested by Laurence Andrew Dobrot, to be very wide cultural misunderstandings and faults of the west in not making peace with the middle east. As the Deputy Director for the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Program, Dobrot, examines the hostility which has been continuous not only since 2001, but since the birth of Wahhabism.

Dobrot proposed that the U.S should recognize the cultural hostility of the tribal Arabs in order to make the first steps towards progression of making peace.

The crusades arose as European expansion was growing at the peak of Islamic unified dominance. As the crusades mark the beginning of conflict between the Christian countries and Islamic countries, some say that the so-called war on terror is a continuation of the crusades. On September 16, 2001, in a speech, President Bush reffered to the War on terror as a crusade. He said:

" No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft - fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people - and show no remorse.  This is a new kind of  -- a new kind of evil.  And we understand.  And the American people are beginning to understand.  This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while.  And the American people must be patient.  I'm going to be patient."

Andrew Bacevich described Bush's naming of the war on terror as a crusade as something which does not make the war separate, rather something that shows that it is part of an "eternal war."

Military industrial Complex

In January 16, 1961, President Eisenhower delivered his farewell speech expressing great concern for the direction of the knew found armaments industry post WWII. While recognizing the boom in economic growth after the war, he reminded the people of America that this was indeed a way of profiting off warfare and that if not regulated enough it could lead to the "grave" expansion of the armaments industry. For his warning of the thirst to profit from warfare through weapon production, Eisenhower coined the term "military industrial complex." He says, "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower feared that the military industrial complex could lead to a state of perpetual war as the big armament industry will continue to profit from warfare.

https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/speeches/farewell_address.pdf

Drug War

The term "War on Drugs" was popularized in 1971 by President Reagan as the First Lady Nancy Reagan who spread the message with her slogan "Just Say No" to drugs. Though coined by Ronald Reagan, the policies which his administration implemented existed stretching back to Woodrow Wilson's Presidency. Security measures were taken under Reagan, to ensure restrictions be put on drugs. The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 was passed so that pharmaceutical companies may keep track of the distributions and maintain restrictions on certain types of drugs. In 1988 the Office of National Drug Control Policy

http://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/reagan-declares-war-on-drugs-october-14-1982-043552

In the 1960s, the War on Drugs was Declared by President Nixon. It was a term used to reffered to the counterculture which used drugs as an act of rebellion.

when did it start? and how its mission is tied to perpetual war

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-right-the-drug-war/

http://www.drugpolicy.org/facts/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war-0

Cold War

The Cold War was a time of extreme tensions between the Soviet Union's interest of expansion of Communism and the rest of the world which operated on a dominantly capitalist economy, mainly the U.S. The Soviet Union was a threat the the American national government as well as its citizens. When the Soviet military reached Afghanistan, the United States took action in training the people of the middle eastern nations to combat the Soviet Army. During the Soviet-Afghan War under the Carter administration, the CIA gave a lot of aid and training to the Islamic Jihadists and helped fund Wahhabi Universities in Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as Iraq. In 1979 Osama Bin Laden was assigned to the CIA and received U.S. military training. In 1985, President Reagan met with Islamic Jihadists at the White House. Under Reagan's presidency, these Islamic Jihadists were known as "freedom fighters," but were later relabeled as "Islamic terrorists" under President George W. Bush's administration.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/9-11-analysis-from-ronald-reagan-and-the-soviet-afghan-war-to-george-w-bush-and-september-11-2001/20958?print=1

(eventually became Bush's war on terror) Was Reagan's policy a source of inspiration for the GWOT?

Perpetual war in films

Snowpiercer- Themes in this film touch on themes of perpetual war. One in particular on the War on Poverty as people fight to pull themselves out of poverty in the film.

Children of Men- War on Poverty was one of many themes in this movie