ABSTRACT
The President of the US looked visibly haggard on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. George W. Bush’s speeches in the immediate aftermath of the horrendous acts that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people were noted for their defiance. The self-assured man, enjoying an unprecedented popular support-nearly 90 per cent by some opinion pollspromised the country a quick resolution of the problem of terrorism. His swaggering speeches were peppered with such phrases as “rooting out” terrorism and “hunting down” those who were responsible for such a reprehensible crime. He boldly promised a nation hungry for revenge to deliver Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, “dead or alive.” In a most grandiose scheme, the US counter-terrorism efforts were quickly dubbed as the “global war on terror.” In an effort to eradicate the scourge of terrorism from the face of the earth, the Bush administration opened a two-front war in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The emergent Bush Doctrine put the entire world on notice: “You are either with us or against us.” Any nation that would harbor terrorists or give aid and comfort would be held directly responsible for the actions of these groups. And if any foreign government was found supporting a terrorist group that targeted the US, its allies, or its global interests, it could expect unilateral actions by the US military disregarding any question of international legitimacy of such actions. According to the Bush Doctrine, the security of the US must override all other concerns and diplomatic niceties. The President, in his first speech immediately after the attacks, by drawing copiously from Christian imageries, declared America’s fight against terrorism as the modern-day “Crusade.”
