The United States’ National Strategy for Counterterrorism (NSC) is intended to disrupt and defeat the Al Qaeda terrorist network and its affiliates. Yet this policy is likely increasing the incidence and severity of terrorist attacks on US forces abroad. The NSC is basically an outline for summary executions, which includes assassination of would-be terrorist via unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. The NSC is presently operational in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Actions carried out under NSC have increasingly caused a majority of Pakistanis to regard US armed forces as a foe. Since implementation of the counterterrorism strategy there has been increases in suicide bombings, the number of those deemed US enemies by the US, and the broader threat of nuclear proliferation. Indeed, since the “counterterror surge” began, violence has increased by 51 percent in Afghanistan and by over 400 percent in Pakistan. Such increases have gone unreported in US news media as military officials publicly maintain the strategy constitutes a more “cost-effective” form of counterterrorism.
Source:
Article Title: Obama’s Secret Wars: How Our Shady Counter-Terrorism Policies are More Dangerous than Terrorism, AlterNet, July 11, 2011
Author: Fred Branfman
Student Researcher: Jasmine Lang, Florida Atlantic University
Faculty Advisor: James F. Tracy, Florida Atlantic University