3. Learning Objectives
18.1 Describe the defense budget of the U.S. military
and the size, strength, and cost of the U.S.
military.
18.2 Understand the global threat of nuclear
weapons to the United States.
18.3 Understand threats of domestic and
international terrorism.
18.4 Understand the consequences of the United
States' invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
18.5 Discuss the changes in warfare in the twenty-first
century.
4. 18.1 - The U.S. Military Establishment
• The Size of the U.S. Military
• The Cost of Maintaining U.S. Military
Superiority
5. LO 18.1 - The Size of the U.S. Military
• The U.S. military is enormous:
– Active-duty military personnel number over
1.4 million
– There are 848,000 members of the guard and
reserve
– They operate 865 bases and other facilities in
135 nations
– The Pentagon is one of the world's largest
office buildings
6. LO 18.1 - The Cost of Maintaining U.S.
Military Superiority
• The 2012 defense budget: $741 billion
• Why so much money?
– Ongoing fear of nuclear weapons
– Unsafe world with weapons of mass
destruction
– Defense spending brings profits to
corporations
– No one will challenge us
8. LO 18.1
The defense budget is actually a/an
__________ of how much is spent related to
national security, veterans, research, and
other military expenditures.
A. overestimate
B. underestimate
C. exact
D. educated guess
9. LO 18.1
The defense budget is actually a/an
__________ of how much is spent related to
national security, veterans, research, and
other military expenditures.
A. overestimate
B. underestimate
C. exact
D. educated guess
10. LO 18.1
The United States spends more on national
security than any other nation.
A. True
B. False
11. LO 18.1
The United States spends more on national
security than any other nation.
A. True
B. False
12. 18.2 - The Threat of Nuclear
Weapons
• Nuclear weapons involve the most
destructive technology on Earth
• 40 countries have the capability to develop
nuclear weapons
13. LO 18.2
Nuclear weapons are the most __________
technology on Earth.
A. available
B. expensive
C. destructive
D. sustainable
14. LO 18.2
Nuclear weapons are the most __________
technology on Earth.
A. available
B. expensive
C. destructive
D. sustainable
15. LO 18.2
The United States and Russia control over
90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.
A. True
B. False
16. LO 18.2
The United States and Russia control over
90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.
A. True
B. False
17. 18.3 - The Terrorism Threat
• Terrorism
• Domestic Terrorism
• International Terrorism
18. LO 18.3 – Terrorism
• Terrorist acts are political acts
• Asymmetric warfare
• Terrorism is a social construction
19. LO 18.3 - Domestic Terrorism
• The history of the United States is full of
dissident groups that have used violence
and aggression
– The Patriot Movement
– The Tea Party Movement
20. LO 18.3 - International Terrorism
• The context for international terrorist
activity in today's world varies
– Separation and independence
– Rival religious groups
• Globalization makes nations vulnerable to
attacks
23. LO 18.3
Terrorist tactics are typically __________,
using whatever is cheap and available to
harm a more powerful opponent.
A. centralized
B. asymmetric
C. religious
D. sectarian
24. LO 18.3
Terrorist tactics are typically __________,
using whatever is cheap and available to
harm a more powerful opponent.
A. centralized
B. asymmetric
C. religious
D. sectarian
25. LO 18.3
Globalization makes countries more
vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
A. True
B. False
26. LO 18.3
Globalization makes countries more
vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
A. True
B. False
27. 18.4 – U.S. National Security and the
War on Terror
• Prelude to the War on Terror
• The Precipitating Event
• A Rush to War
• The War in Iraq
• The Afghanistan War
• The Costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
• The Legacy of the Wars
28. LO 18.4 - Prelude to the War on Terror
• The 9/11 attacks were not born on that
day
• The attacks began in the mid-1980s
29. LO 18.4 - The Precipitating Event
• The morning of September 11, 2001, four
commercial jets were hijacked
– Two planes hit the World Trade Center
– One plane hit the Pentagon
– One plane crashed in rural PA
30. LO 18.4
The events of September 11, 2001, changed the
course of history.
31. LO 18.4 - A Rush to War
• A War Like No Other
• The War in Afghanistan
• The Bush Doctrine
– The Line in the Sand
– Unbounded U.S. Military Superiority
– Unilateral Preventive War and Regime
Change
– The Spread of Democracy
32. LO 18.4 - Explorer Activity: War and Terrorism:
The War on Terror and Those Who Fight It
http://www.socialexplorer.com/pearson/plink.aspx?Please log into MySocLab with your
username and password before accessing
this link.
33. LO 18.4 - The War in Iraq
• Justifications used for war:
– Saddam Hussein was guilty of mass murder
– Alleged gathering of weapons of mass
destruction
– Connection between Hussein and al-Qaeda
• Was the war justified?
34. LO 18.4 - The Afghanistan War
• President Obama increased U.S. military
presence briefly in Afghanistan
– Plan to withdraw troops by 2014
• Civil war is likely to continue
35. LO 18.4 - The Costs of the Iraq and
Afghanistan Wars
• Loss of Human Life
• The Injured
• The Displaced
• Monetary Costs
36. LO 18.4
More than 80,000 troops were injured or wounded in the
Iraq War.
37. LO 18.4 - Video: NYC Terrorist Plot
http://abavtooldev.pearsoncmg.com/sbx_videoplayer_
38. LO 18.4 - The Legacy of the Wars
• The Effort Is Successful
• Iraqis and Afghans Turn Against the
United States
• The Sunni–Shiite Schism
• Loss of U.S. Image
• Inhumane Treatment
• Erosion of Civil Liberties
39. LO 18.4
The monetary costs of the wars far
exceeded expectations; in addition, the wars
__________.
A. drained resources from social
programs
B. perpetuated urban blight
C. offered opportunities for citizens
D. created a divide among
Republicans
40. LO 18.4
The monetary costs of the wars far
exceeded expectations; in addition, the wars
__________.
A. drained resources from social
programs
B. perpetuated urban blight
C. offered opportunities for citizens
D. created a divide among
Republicans
41. LO 18.4
September 11, 2001, marked the start of
problems with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
A. True
B. False
42. LO 18.4
September 11, 2001, marked the start of
problems with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
A. True
B. False
43. 18.5 - Twenty-First Century Warfare
• War has changed
• Volunteer military from mostly lower-class
backgrounds
• Resources
• Drone strikes and presidential power
• National security threats have changed
44. LO 18.5
Stealth attacks by drones have assassinated suspected
terrorist leaders, but their collateral damage has also killed
innocents, leading to increased support for terrorists in their
war against the United States.
45. LO 18.5
The all-volunteer U.S. military __________
the lower and working class.
A. greatly benefits
B. effectively equips
C. disproportionately represents
D. intentionally portrays
46. LO 18.5
The all-volunteer U.S. military __________
the lower and working class.
A. greatly benefits
B. effectively equips
C. disproportionately represents
D. intentionally portrays
47. LO 18.5
The president is able to bypass Congress in
ordering drone strikes.
A. True
B. False
48. LO 18.5
The president is able to bypass Congress in
ordering drone strikes.
A. True
B. False
49. LO 18.5
Question for Discussion
Discuss the precursors, evolution, and
ending of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Editor's Notes
The 2010 Quadrennial Review provides the current state of U.S. national security: “The United States faces a complex and uncertain security landscape in which the pace of change continues to accelerate.”
What are the challenges and uncertainties?
The rise of China and India
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
Nonstate actors (terrorist groups)
The military is large.
The active duty military are all volunteer.
Not to mention, there are nonmilitary personnel hired by the military as contractors.
Currently, there are more nonmilitary in Iraq and Afghanistan than military.
The U.S. defense budget is LARGE. The $741 billion doesn't include indirect expenses like veterans' benefits, federal research, cleaning up toxic waste, and others.
The U.S. outspends all other nations on national security.
Why?
The ongoing fear of nuclear weapons.
The world, even without the Soviet Union, is a scary, unsafe place. There are rogue nations and terrorist groups developing weapons of mass destruction.
Defense spending is good for our capitalist nation. Corporations make lots and lots of money on our national security.
We spend a lot because the assumption is that by having the largest and strongest military the United States will be protected from foreign threats.
War is a hugely profitable industry.
Politicians gain support from their constituents if they bring military money to their corporations, communities, and state.
The corporations supplying military supplies exploit this by distributing their operations across many states and many districts within those states.
The Cold War was the intense tension and arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II until 1990.
The Cold War budget was more than that half-century's federal combined spending on Medicare, education, disaster relief, social services, non-nuclear research, environmental protection, highway maintenance, and prisons.
The United States and Russia, in 2009, possessed 96 percent of the world's nuclear warheads, each aimed at the other.
Other countries with nuclear power:
France, Britain, China, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea
The newcomers to the nuclear club are not governed by elaborate rules and sophisticated technology designed to prevent accidents and firing in haste.
There is the danger of nuclear weapons or weapons-grade materials falling into the hands of terrorists.
The tension from nuclear weaponry will only accelerate.
Terrorism is “not an enemy; it is a methodology of using violence to gain political objectives.”
Terrorism is any act intended to cause death or serious injury to civilians or noncombatants, to intimidate a population and weaken their will, or to draw attention to the perpetrator's cause.
Terrorists have an agenda.
Tactic used by groups against governments and organizations viewed as unjust and oppressive.
Terrorism is asymmetric.
Terrorism is the method of less well-armed and less-powerful opponents.
Typically, they do not have sophisticated weapons.
Terrorists use what is cheap and available. Instead of guided missiles, they use suicide bombers—“the poor man's air force.”
Terrorism is a social construction.
What is defined as terrorism and who is labeled a terrorist are matters of interpretation of events and their presumed causes.
Consider the different meanings for these words: terrorist/freedom fighter or suicide bomber/martyr.
Our history is filled with individuals and groups acting with aggression.
Colonists, farmers, settlers, Native Americans, immigrants, slaves, slaveholders, laborers, strike breakers, anarchists, vigilantes, the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist organizations, antiwar protesters, radical environmentalists, and prolife extremists.
Two events in the 1990s led to the Patriot movement:
In 1992 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) attacked Randy Weaver, a White supremacist in Idaho, for gun violations. In the process Weaver's wife and son were killed by ATF snipers.
The second event was the 1993 assault by ATF on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas. This siege, again over guns violations, ended with the deaths of eighty-six men, women, and children.
Those in the Patriot movement interpreted these acts as government run amok, using its power to take away the liberties that individuals are granted by the Constitution.
The Tea Party movement is not an organized group but many individuals who believe the government is too big and taking away our rights. It emerged from libertarian, populist, and fringe militia agendas. The movement started in the Great Recession and was fueled by the election of an African American president whom they believe is Muslim.
Most Tea Partiers are not violent, but they are angry, upset, and they feel threatened. The movement represents a genuine backlash against current trends.
Chapter 18, Activity 1
National Security versus Civil Liberties
Have students review the text to familiarize themselves with some antiterrorism measures. Then break the class into two groups, one in favor of these pro-national security measures and one in favor of protecting civil liberties. Tell each group to prepare a defense that supports or opposes the particular measures. Then ask one representative from each group to discuss her/his group's position. Use this exercise as a way to stimulate a discussion on how the goals of national security often contrast with American values of freedom. Ask students to consider how people living in the U.S. can be sure that the government will use national security measures solely for antiterrorist activity and not just to gain control over its citizens and visitors .
International terrorism takes on many forms.
Some countries want to separate and form independent states.
They may be rival religious groups (Palestinians and Israelis).
Globalization has quickened the pace, scale, and fear of terrorism.
The United States is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks because it is a mobile, open society with porous borders.
Modern societies provide a huge array of possible targets for terrorists.
The United States, for example, has 60,000 chemical plants and 103 nuclear plants that could be sabotaged.
Transportation systems (planes, trains, cargo ships) can be easily disrupted with explosions or computer glitches.
Terrorist barriers may be difficult to defend because terrorists use asymmetrical warfare to attack.
The United States may have sufficient protections against major attacks from other nations, but it is relatively vulnerable to terrorist attacks because we have open borders and are mobile (people coming and going).
The U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were the result of a number of historical events that converged to bring about the response of war.
In 1983, Shiite Muslim suicide bombers destroyed U.S. Marine and French paratrooper barracks in Lebanon, killing 299, including 241 Americans.
In 1988,terrorists linked to Libya bombed Pan Am 747 headed for the United States over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 passengers and residents of the town.
In 1993, a truck bomb was detonated in the garage of the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.
In 1995, the Army training headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was bombed, killing five Americans and wounding thirty-one.
In 1996, nineteen U.S. soldiers were killed and 372 Americans injured by an attack on military housing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
In 1998, car bombs, organized by al-Qaeda, exploded outside U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing 224 people, including twelve Americans.
In 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in a Yemen harbor by al-Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat, killing seventeen sailors and injuring thirty-nine.
On September 10, 2001, the National Security Agency intercepted messages that said, “The match is about to begin” and “Tomorrow is zero hour.” These messages were not translated until September 12.
The plane in PA left Newark for San Francisco, changed direction, but, possibly because of heroic passengers attacking the hijackers, failed in its mission, presumably to dive into the White House or Capitol Hill, crashing instead in rural Pennsylvania.
Thus, within about two hours, these four planes, commandeered by terrorists in synchronized suicide missions, had attacked two symbols of the United States—the World Trade Center, the hub of U.S. capitalism, and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the world's greatest military—killing nearly 3,000 people, about the same number of Americans who died at Pearl Harbor.
President George W. Bush declared war nine days after 9/11.
A War Like No Other. In the twentieth century, wars were fought by nations over land, resources, and ideology. But the terrorists of 9/11 did not represent a nation, and they were not intent on occupying territories.
Combat includes the use of conventional force as well as car bombs and suicide bombers.
In this new warfare, the combatants will not know victory.
In this new kind of warfare, great advantages in military technology do not make a nation safe.
The War in Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom launched on October 7, 2001, against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
It was declared that al-Qaeda and the Taliban were weakened and on the run a year later.
Yet, at the beginning of 2012, more than ten years after the war began, the United States was still at war with terrorists in Afghanistan.
The Bush Doctrine. Believing in the rightness of its cause and the evil of the terrorists, the Bush administration developed guidelines for U.S. military actions in the war on terror and the longer-range plan for national security in the twenty-first century.
The line in the sand. Addressing the nation on the day of 9/11, President Bush said, “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them”.
He clarified later that the United States was drawing a line in the sand, and that all world nations had a “decision to make.” “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
Unbounded. Build a military “beyond challenge” and for “experimentation with new approaches to warfare.”
In a classified document, the Bush Doctrine also stated that the United States reserves the right to respond to danger with overwhelming force—including potentially nuclear weapons.
Unilateral. The Bush administration asserted the right of the United States to carry out preventive wars, unilaterally to remove governments (regime change) that it deems to be engaged in long-range plans to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and to support terrorism.
Spread. The assumption is that the national interests of the United States are best pursued by spreading democratic forms of governance.
There are questions as to whether or not Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction and a connection to al-Qaeda.
Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003 without a clear United Nations mandate.
The offensive moved swiftly.
President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003, yet the war continued until the last troops were withdrawn in December 2012.
Was the war justified? No weapons of mass destruction were found, and the rationale for the war shifted to bring democracy to Iraq, which would serve as a model for democracy for other nations in the Middle East to adopt.
Most of the troops are withdrawn, but the U.S. still has a large embassy in Baghdad. In addition, the Iraqis purchased $15 billion in U.S. military hardware.
As the war in Iraq was coming to a close, President Obama increased troops in Afghanistan.
The plan is to withdraw troops by 2014 and leave the combat responsibilities to the Afghans.
Regardless of U.S. involvement, Afghanistan will likely continue its perpetual civil war. So, as USA Today editorialized, “A clear-cut victory [in Afghanistan] is no more attainable than it was in Vietnam, Korea or Iraq.”
Loss of life
6,460 U.S. service members
1,344 other coalition soldiers
100,000 to 920,000 Iraqi civilian deaths
The Injured
Official Pentagon report is 38,000.
However, this number is misleading. It does not take into account the civilians who were injured or the Iraqi/Afghani soldiers. It leaves out PTSD, brain trauma, hearing loss, and other injuries.
The Displaced
The wars displaced 7.815 million people (3.315 million Afghan civilians, 3.5 million Iraqi civilians, and 1.0 million Pakistani civilians) .
Monetary Costs
$2.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion on these conflicts.
Drained resources from social programs that could have lessened the severity of societal social problems.
The official numbers of injured (38,000) is an underestimate.
In addition, the official numbers do not take into account the effects on civilians who are also in harm's way.
Are the Iraqis really better off?
Turn against the United States:
Infrastructures were destroyed in the wars
U.S. violence and occupation increased the threat of terrorism
Sunni-Shiite schism did not go away as a result of the war. In fact, it increased.
Loss of credibility. Muslims have less regard for the United States since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, because:
Perception of the wars as indirect attacks on Muslims
The widespread assumption that U.S. involvement was to take advantage of the oil supply in Iraq
The secret prisons
The torture of Muslims (per the images of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
Expanding the war in Afghanistan
The assassination of Osama bin Laden
The continued U.S. support of Israel
Inhumane Treatment
In 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act.
The act allowed president to declare “enemy combatants” and broadened the definition, denied enemy combatants habeas corpus, allowed aggressive interrogation in secret prisons and suspension of normal rules of due process.
Erosion of Civil Liberties
Passing the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act of 2001 allowed the government to:
Secretly search phone, Internet, and health, financial, and student records
Imprison of non-citizens without cause
Investigate any American for “intelligence” without cause
PATRIOT Act was a contradiction of the very war we were fighting. Under the Bush Doctrine, the United States has conducted aggressive military campaigns to liberate Afghans and Iraqis and bring democracy to “the greater Middle East.”
Yet, the actions of the government have restricted civil liberties that are the foundation of the U.S. Constitution and democracy.
How can we expand democracy in the wider world when we do not practice it in fortress America?
Chapter 18, Activity 2
PATRIOT Act Provisions
Go through the various components of the PATRIOT Act and ask students to write down their information for each section, that you intend to collect it from them and you promise not use it for anything bad but that you can't tell them what you will use it for. Do not actually collect this information from them, but use it as an opportunity to have a discussion about whether they are comfortable with this. Did anyone lie? Did anyone alter the facts a little bit? Does that make them terrorists?
The military does not touch all families. The enlisted soldiers come from poor and working-class families.
The military is kept to a minimum by extending tours and privatizing functions.
Privatization means individuals are in war zones out of the public eye.
Wars of the past required the government to shift money around and increase taxes to justify it.
For the first time in modern history, we went into a major war by reducing the tax burden on the wealthy. The costs were shifted to later generations as the national debt rose and its immense size ($16 trillion in 2012) was used to justify reducing social programs.
The nature of war has changed as drone strikes are used. These are unmanned aerial vehicles used for surveillance and bombing strategic targets.
Drone strikes are classified and cannot be debated in Congress.
If we do not solve national security problems, then the other social problems discussed in this text are immaterial. These global social problems, although seemingly far away and removed from everyday life, hold the ultimate consequences for our individual and collective security.
What impact do drone strikes have on national security?
