GOV 312L Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Democracy Promotion, Ethical Dilemma, Waterboarding
Document Summary
Commitment to broaden war against states and non state actors. Decision of bush, rice, k. hughes and speechwriters (gerson); key national security players left out. Quickly determined to strike al qaeda, given sanctuary in southern afghanistan by. Taliban in return for substantial financial support: tremendous pressure on military and cia to be ready asap, concerns about breakdown in order if another attack before striking back. Bush addresses congress 9/20, addresses nation announcing commencement of air strikes on 10/7. Important attributes of initial campaign in afghanistan: challenge: difficult terrain, place where empires go to die (e. g. soviet union, us allies with northern alliance, collection of groups in northern afghanistan fighting taliban. Illustrates convergence of national interests of all states, terrorism as a threat to their viability as organizational form. How do we get from 9/11 to war in afghanistan to war in iraq: bush faces pressure from within administration to go to war against iraq right away after 9/11.
