Introduction

The US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq focused the public’s attention on the new forms of conflict that dominate the post-Cold War international environment. Rightly or wrongly, both wars were justified with reference to the events of September 11, 2001. Afghanistan was depicted as the long-standing safe haven and operational base of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, and the Taliban regime was seen as Bin Laden’s willing host and protector. Iraq was depicted as a rogue state that was at least sympathetic to Al Qaeda and (according to the Bush administration) an active accomplice with Bin Laden in the new international terrorist network that has replaced the Soviet Union with its nuclear arsenal as the dominant threat to the West. The invasion of Afghanistan, then, was justified on the grounds of finding and destroying the nerve center of that global network of terrorists and denying them the safe haven of Afghanistan by replacing a regime sympathetic to Al Qaeda with one that would be on track to join the community of democratic states. Similarly, the invasion of Iraq was justified on the grounds of preventing Saddam Hussein from launching or sponsoring his own 9-11 style assault and preempting his serving as a supplier of weapons of mass destruction to terror networks such as Al Qaeda. Iraq, too, would be launched on the road to democracy and serve as a beacon to the rest of the Middle East.