ABSTRACT

The Bush administration's response to the catastrophic loss of life in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 has been nothing short of catastrophic. The loss of civilian life in the U.S. attack on Afghanistan that followed exceeded the loss of life on 9/11, and the subsequent use of 9/11 as an implied pretext for the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime and the U.S. occupation of Iraq has led to yet greater numbers of civilian dead, along with dangerous instabilities throughout the Middle East. Moreover, the effects of 9/11 and the U.S. response to it have not been confined to the Middle East and Central Asia but have rippled to other corners of the world, indicating the deeply interconnected character of contemporary geopolitical economic processes and the continuing, enormous impact of U.S. foreign policy in the era of “globalization.” 1