ABSTRACT
If the end of the Cold War culminated in an “end of history,” with the ideological battle-lines of the twentieth-century being obliterated in favor of an American-style understanding of liberal democracy, history surely reawakened on the morning of September 11, 2001. The Iraq adventure proved to be a tragedy of errors. Fostering greater regional stability in the Persian Gulf was a goal of the decision to invade Iraq, as was safeguarding the security of American allies. Both aspirations ended in abject failure. A spate of terrorist attacks perpetrated against American allies showed the lack of security yielded by the 2003 US-led invasion, and occupation, of Iraq. While the goal of protecting the security of American allies lay in America’s desired aims of utilizing the direct-action strategy in the Persian Gulf, the inverse has been the case. The increased presence in the Gulf has produced an increased amount of terrorist activity, particularly against the American allies in Europe, notably in Spain.
