ABSTRACT
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Bush administration’s strategies and actions in response to the 9/11 attack on the United States will be analyzed and critiqued for years, if not decades to come. Since the Vietnam War, no foreign policy and national security issue has generated such widespread national debate and caused such intense political differences and divisions than the decision to engage in a pre-emptive military intervention in Iraq as the foundation of its global anti-terrorist strategy. Although the Clinton administration engaged in anti-terrorist actions, specifically the bombing of suspected al Qaeda targets in Sudan and Afghanistan, the scope of these campaigns was limited to air strikes (one that nearly killed Osama bin Laden) and later to policies that froze the assets of known terrorist organizations and individuals who collaborated with terrorists in the United States and elsewhere.
