The War on Terror

A "war on terror" was declared by President George W. Bush after 9/11. This “war” has morphed into a culture shaping event that still lingers in America today. The effects of the war on terror can be seen in popular culture, academia and law. In document 9.10 in the Iraq papers Bush is vague in his description of who exactly is the enemy in this war. Bush states that "We will not only deal with those who dare attack America, we will deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them." The war on terror had shifted the definition of war from being declared against a single nation to being declared against an ideology (Islam). The expansion of war from between two nations to between ideologies shifted the scope of the war, "Once the enemy was not a nation-state or even identifiable social group, but an ideology, war seemed to have no boundaries in space or time, but seeped into the global spaces where those evil reside" (Dudziak, 108). In Bush's speeches he states no single nation nor does he limit his war to just one group instead he says that we are fighting a war against "barbaric behavior, people that hate freedom and hate what we stand for". This fed into a sense that American ideals are better than others and are worth defending. In building this war of ideologies Bush has added to the narrative of exceptionality which has garnered him much support for policies that are part of the war. The attacks of 9/11 where perceived as historical moments that changed the course of world history marking the beginning of an “exceptional time”. The perception of the beginning of an exceptional time is in part because of the immediate declaration that the attacks on 9/11 were acts of war not just acts of terror or violence. The declaration of a war marks an exceptional time in the nation, a time when its people must rally around the president and the troops. The support of the president is evident in the lack of resistance to Bush’s numerous controversial policies such as the USA Patriot Act. The Patriot Act in essence “erases any legal status of the individual, thus producing a legally unnamable and unclassifiable being” (Agmben, 3). Such as dramatic policy being issued with little public resistance is evidence that the fundamental interpretation of our laws and rights as citizens were now interpreted differently in this exceptional wartime. American popular culture was also cultivating the idea of this exceptional time. The live streaming of the attacks on news like CNN all day had a stunning effect on American people. They witness the atrocities in real time and felt a historical significance to them. Popular culture searched for the heroic spin on the events. The popularity of the movie United 93 is just one example of the American people searching for heroes to root for and focus their attention on in the wake of this disturbing event. The transition into an exceptional time in American history marked by an ideological war was evident in every aspect of American life.